The Mark of Athena
by HecateA
Summary: If Percy and Jason had thought that climbing mountains and glaciers was hard- it's because they hadn't tried reuniting natural enemies with only the two of them who fully agree with everyone else on both sides. What I had on Fanpop.
1. I Piper

**Disclaimer: I own none.**

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Piper

Jason looked like his grin was going to crawl off his face (which as painful as that would be- probably wouldn't make it any smaller), Annabeth looked like she was going to be sick, and Leo seemed about twice as hyper as usual.

_Super_, Piper thought.

Now that it spread across them as the giant ship touched down, Piper could really appreciate what they'd gotten Jason to describe for the last few months, even if her stomach didn't feel right.

Temples and buildings with red tiled roofs and domes mingled with coffee shops and stores and other normal buildings in the city. It was amazing, and the most impressive thing Piper had seen since she'd first seen Camp Half-Blood. Well, not exactly… There was the Argo II that was pretty impressive.

Cabin 9 had worked their butts off on it. Leo had nearly become an insomniac (don't let that fool you- you still couldn't get him to sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time) and Nyssa was on the verge of a nervous breakdown since week 21 of building- which beat most of them, actually. Hephaestus cabin had been overworked, overstressed and barely seen outside the forge or the beach for the last 8 months, yet they still managed to roll out of bed and pick up a hammer every morning. That was the part that blew Piper's mind. She'd never even known Leo had it in him- she'd never known anybody had it in them, actually.

The boat had a low and narrow hull, supposedly to make it go quicker. Rows of paddles lined every side of the ship, and there were ballistas –including something roman that Jason had talked about called a scorpion ballista- mounted on deck, as well as a dozen other fun deadly toys. The mast head was Festus- Leo had insisted on wielding it himself- and it looked like the dragon was wearing a bed sheet because of the billowing white flag. There were two sails- the bigger one in the center, and a smaller one in the back. The front of the ship had a forky bit called a ram, and it was used to punch holes into other ships. It was 114.a lot feet long, and Piper couldn't believe how quickly and effectively cabin 9 had put it together. If there was a curse before, she hadn't seen it in them as they cheered the boat's departure.

A ring of soldiers immediately formed a ring around the ship- yelling to each other in a mix of Latin and English, as they spread out like a well-oiled machine, holding spears pointed towards them.

Fear clogged up Piper's throat- what if something went wrong? If they shot? That was one of their two options at this camp; Chiron, Jason and Annabeth had all said it.

They'd either welcome them, or shoot them. A 50/50 chance supposedly.

Piper noticed a group of people making –although the word should've been more like 'struggling'- their way through the crowd and at some point, something in Latin was shouted and the crowd parted quickly, as if the girl who'd yelled it had a bomb strapped on her chest.

Piper studied Jason's face, a face she knew well now. The scar above his lip, sky blue eyes, close-cropped blond hair. His smile was brighter than ever.

"Well, now what?" Leo asked, joining everyone at the railing.

"Wait." Jason said. The girl in the purple cloak raised her hand and yelled an order in Latin- Piper could hear it so crystal clear it sent a chill down her spine. _Pila pone._

It must have meant 'lay down your spear' or something because that's what the ring of legionnaires around the ship did.

"They're not shooting," Jason said. "She ordered it. Come on. You first, Annabeth. I think someone wants to see you."

Eyeing the crowd, Piper saw that one of the people in the group pushing through had black hair and eager and intense green eyes, and the only other time she'd seen him was in a picture. Annabeth's stormy eyes brightened and she tried not to smile.

"O… Okay." For the first time the daughter of Athena seemed nervous. She'd pulled her blond curls out of her face and she was wearing the top of her bronze armour. Her grey eyes were intense and dangerous looking, but she definitely sounded nervous. Piper hoped she had no reason to be, it would destroy her right now…

She took Jason's hand and he jumped over the railing, his wind powers bringing them both smoothly to the ground.

Piper jumped over the edge and landed the fall. She smiled to herself. Tripping would've felt beyond stupid in front of all these Romans.

"Show off." Leo sniggered. But he jumped it too. It was so much faster than a ladder, and so much more convenient.

They walked past the ring of Roman soldiers who looked at them with looks that reminded Piper of Jason when he was sparring- except there were 20 of them and they could all kill her, which Jason wouldn't.

It chilled Piper to the bone- it was like a pack of wolves. Ready to attack any moment- without failure as an option.

She raised her hand in a tiny wave before going on, Leo at her side.

They froze and eyed Percy and Annabeth. Percy smiled and stepped forwards.

"I remember," he reassured her.

Annabeth closed the gap and threw her arms around his neck.

"Oh my gosh- thank the gods, I was so worried!" She said. Percy wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. Percy tilted her chin up and kissed her.

"I'm okay, I'm sorry." He said.

"You better be Percy Jackson, that was insane!" She said letting go of his shoulders. "A few days of total panic and confusion camp-wide until we pieced it together thanks to Jason, 8 months of more confusion because none of us had any idea, then I assume you were on some sort of quest because we couldn't keep a tab on you for the last few days, so _we_were panicking because we know how you and quests go!"

"I was," Percy said. "It was so weird without you and Grover. Everything was- but it ended up okay. Right?"

"Guess so," said a girl with curly hair and… were those gold eyes? Whatever they were; they were rigged on Leo behind Piper.

"About," the guy next to her said. He was a bulky Asian boy, with a babyish face- but Piper guessed he was older than he looked.

They walked up next to Jason who was giving a hug to the girl in the purple cape.

"I've missed you," she said.

"I've missed you too."

"I don't need to tell you how stupid it was to let yourself get kidnapped?"

"No," Jason promised.

"Good, I don't have my knife."

"Funny; I hope you're kidding."

"Of course I am, I've missed you."

Another few people ran through the crowd and the first was a girl with thick blonde hair and a radiant smile. She threw her arms around Jason who swung her around to recover from the impact.

"Whoa-Gwen, I'm fine!"

"We were so worried, we thought you were dead, we thought you were gone!" Gwen said, only hugging him harder.

A guy with curly hair stumbled across and tripped, but Jason caught his hand to stabilise him.

"Dakota, don't hurt yourself." Jason said.

"Hey man, good to see you." Dakota said, his mouth stained with red and his eyes looking hazy. The next guy slapped Jason on the back.

"I'm feeling the urge to kill you for that, but that doesn't seem like such a smart move right now." He said.

"Thanks Bobby."

"Gwen, you'll kill him, he just got back." Reyna said. The blond girl who must've been Gwen let go of Jason, buzzing with energy and smiling up to her ears.

That's when everyone started spazzing. Crowds were pushing against each other and Piper started feeling a little claustrophobic. Whoa-

"Romans!" Reyna called strictly. "Back! He has just come back, no need to overwhelm him, or out visitors! You see that he is unhurt, and you'll be able to talk to him after the senate meeting." Reyna said.

She turned back towards them.

"Percy, Jason- this is the guy you've been replacing." Annabeth told the two in questions once the crowd had backed off a bit. They both turned towards each other.

"So you're-" they both started saying. Piper bit her lip to stop herself from laughing.

"Umm, that guy everyone's been talking about." Percy said.

"I was going to say the same thing. Jason Grace," he said holding out his hand. Percy shook it.

"Percy Jackson," he said. "And I'm assuming you know mostly everybody- but this is Reyna, Hazel and Frank. Gwen, Dakota and Bobby are right here, and the harpy with Tyson is Ella."

Annabeth smiled and inclined her head. Piper followed her example and Leo said 'hi' with a stifled yawn included.

"And this is Leo, Piper and Annabeth for the rest of you." Jason said.

Percy's eyes were hovering from people (read: Annabeth) to the ship.

"Beauty, eh?" Leo asked, still rubbing some oil from his hands. "A pain to build, but beautiful."

"It's amazing." Percy said in total awe. Piper half expected him to start singing 'hallelujah' or something. His eyes swept over it. "Built for manoeuvrability and speed, right?"

"It's a trireme. The best war ship of the Mediterranean." Annabeth said. "I thought you might like it."

"That's the boat you sent the message from?" Hazel asked Leo. "The one the seven are going to go down?"

"The Argo II; that's her." Leo nodded proudly. He had total rights to be proud of that thing.

"Well, now you're all on the same page," Reyna said. "Come; to the senate. We were just about done."

"Umm, Jason… Before we go in, you should know that…"

"You're praetor now?" Jason filled in for Percy.

"Yeah…" Percy said awkwardly.

"Congrats," Jason said. "I've failed them by being away for so long, Reyna couldn't be alone."

"I appreciate that you thought of me," Reyna smiled sadly.

"If you want your job back, no problem I'll just-"

"No, they elected you," Jason cut. "You're the praetor."

"It was your job first."

"It's your job now."

"Yeah but-"

"Stop arguing," Annabeth said. They both shut up.

"Perfect;" Reyna said. "You've had practise. Let's go."

They all fell through to the senate, blending in with a procession of kids in togas. Actually they didn't blend in; Piper felt so self conscient, as everyone looked over at her. Was she not walking straight enough or something? Either way, her stomach was missing in action.

Jason drifted in the line, closer to Reyna and the other Romans. Piper had sort of seen that coming. He was bound to miss his friends, and they'd have missed him. She tried not to let it bother her.

Percy and Annabeth hung in the back, holding hands. Annabeth looking half stunned seeing her fingers laced with another's hand, but she smiled whenever she looked up at Percy's face. Piper smiled herself but looked forwards.

The younger Roman girl drifted behind to her and Leo.

"I'm Hazel Levesque," she said, looking Leo in the eyes.

"Sweet, I'm Leo V and this is Piper McLean." Leo introduced. Hazel nodded, but Piper could tell that was not the answer she'd been looking for. Did she know Leo already? He had traveled around a lot, maybe she was from a foster home he'd forgotten.

Hazel's intense gold eyes and the crowd of romans intimidated her, so she looked down, like that'd make them go away. Just as Piper was reasoning to herself that this was like school, looking down made nothing go away, she saw a diamond in the grass.

"You have diamonds here?" She asked.

Hazel looked down sprawl-eyed at the stone.

"That's… That's just from the feast, last night, it must be, guess they missed one." She smiled even if it looked fake to Piper. "Just… Don't touch it. Don't touch any of the diamonds you see. Or any other jewel or metal lying on the ground. Especially if they look suspicious." Hazel said nervously.

"Do jewels on the ground ever not look suspicious?" Leo asked. She bit her lip and turned around. Leo and Piper exchanged looks.

"Is that a Roman thing?" Leo asked Piper quietly.

"I don't know; ask Jason." Piper whispered back. She didn't think it was. She and Annabeth had read up on a lot about Rome recently; sitting in corners of cabin 6 when they weren't needed elsewhere and exchanging factoids, and taking notes in Hilroy notebooks. Sure; Piper had felt way behind because Annabeth seemed to know everything already; but it'd been fun. It reminded Piper a bit about learning so much about mythology with her Dad.

Thinking about Dad made Piper feel a little guilty- but not the same guilt as last winter. This time she was lying _to_ him. About why she couldn't come home for Christmas and Easter, why she couldn't spend summer in LA with the handful of okay girls she'd made ties with… It was a lose-lose situation with Dad, apparently, and with being a half-blood. Someway you ended up lying to someone.

Piper pushed those thoughts away.

"So Hazel, who's your parent?"

Hazel smiled glumly.

"Pluto. I think you call him, umm…"

"Hades," Leo said. Hazel blushed but she seemed hooked to his voice.

"Yeah, that's him." Hazel said.

"Cool, you're Nico's sister!" Piper said. "Where did he go off to, anyways? He was supposed to be here, once he sort-of mentioned that there was a Roman camp to the rest of us." Hazel looked at the ground, which didn't make Piper feel too encouraged.

"Complicated," she mumbled.

"Hey! You there! Newcomers! Boat people!" Someone yelled. Piper spun around and she saw a marble statue- a man from the waist up with curly hair and no arms. "Over here!" He said.

"Is that a god?" Piper asked.

"Terminus," Percy nodded. "The OCD god of boundaries. Come on, you _really _don't want to get him mad. He killed a giant."

"Killed a what?" Leo asked in shock.

"Long story," Reyna said. She shooed the senators to the senate house and accompanied the others to the god.

"We should fix him." Leo said. "Extreme plastic surgery, umm, marble surgery."

"ID ready, single file, and I heard that, short boy in the back!" Leo's eyes sprawled for a second and Hazel bit her lips as if to keep herself from laughing. Piper eyed her suspiciously. Spending 8 months in Aphrodite cabin, she'd heard her fair share of gossip and then some, so she was seriously wondering if Hazel…

"What do we do for ID?" Piper asked, snapping herself back to the important thing, _not _the Cabin 8 thing.

"Camp necklace," Annabeth said, fingering hers. "It's the Greek identification. But you two don't have any… Well, Chiron said to wait but…"

She took two letter strings from her one-shouldered bag.

"No beads yet; but Chiron said that if we were still on ship and, well, alive by August, you two should get these."

"Oh yeay, string. That's fully credible."

"You're talking to the girl who has 9 beads, Leo." Percy reminded him. "She takes these things seriously." Annabeth turned to him and smile.

"For someone who's been on his quest a few days ago; your memory is really good." She said, kissing him on the cheek. He put and arm around her and kept her near as they walked.

Piper tied the string around her neck. She wondered what the bead would look like. Some of them were cool, and some of them confused her profoundly- like the centaur in the dress? Piper didn't even want to know. While others made her sad just by looking at them, like last summer's bead with the Empire state building, and all those names in Greek. Piper really hoped this summer wouldn't be sad; but the chances weren't looking good.

"Complete ID for anybody who comes in this city, and I don't care how! On foot, chariot, horse, Pegasus, pogo stick, boat- do I honestly need a sign? Good; now who do we have here? Reyna, praetor of course- and oh look, it's Jason! Finally my boy!" The statue said.

"Hello Terminus," Jason said, his tattooed arm still held out.

"Where have you been? You know; they don't tell me anything anymore. I've just heard the gossip. 'Gone, disappeared, disaster, government conspiracy, died in battle, kidnapped'."

"More like stepmom conspiracy…" Jason mumbled. "I'm fine, Terminus- and you're still a god to us. Pass the others?"

"ID?" Terminus asked.

Piper fingered her necklace.

"Sorry, we don't take that kind." Terminus said. "But we do take international passports, health cards or blood samples."

"Blood samples?"

"I've got it," Annabeth said. She took out 3 passports from her bag and handed them to Terminus.

"No hands," he said annoyed.

"Oops," Annabeth said opening them each. Terminus scanned them.

"Get your arms tattooed for the next time." The statue said. "So much easier- get with the times, I say. Percy Jackson, second praetor, of course, I saw you earlier, nice tattoo by the way."

"You got it?" Annabeth asked.

"Umm, yeah." Percy said holding out his arm.

"It's very nice, been a while since I've seen the trident on one's arm… And listen up, you 3, weapons aren't allowed in the senate."

"Since Julius Caesar, right?" Annabeth guessed.

"My, someone's smart." Terminus said. "That was a bad day. Julia- Julia!" He called. The cutest little girl pounced out of a bush and held up a tray for them.

"All weapons?" Annabeth asked.

"All of them." He nodded. Piper untied Katoptris from her waist, but it was too long to fit in Julia's tray.

"Can you hold onto that for me?" She asked. Julia nodded with a smile- her two front teeth were coming in.

Piper thought she shouldn't be giving this 6 year old a deadly weapon but she was most likely trained not to touch it, and Terminus seemed strict enough. Besides, Romans didn't like celestial bronze. Piper had never seen Jason touch the stuff during his whole stay at Camp.

Annabeth dropped her knife, and Leo took off his tool belt as she wrestled with something in her hair. She finally took out a few simple grey clips.

"What?" Terminus asked, confused himself.

"They connect to human brains," Annabeth said. "One thought and whoever is touching my head gets an electric shock that makes Zeus think 'owe'. A good-luck gift I guess, from Malcolm."

Why Annabeth kept that in her hair, she didn't know, but it seemed like one accessory Piper could live with.

"Yesterday that little girl was all like 'I want to be Percy Jackson when I grow up'." Hazel told Piper and Annabeth. Piper cooed and Annabeth laughed.

"What?" Percy said.

"Nothing, that's just really cute." Annabeth said. "Bet she doesn't know you drool in your sleep."

They continued into the city and sat in the senate- which Piper thought looked like a High School lecture room.

Piper watched what everyone was doing before she sat down, as Percy and Reyna took the stage in 3 seats, and Percy made Jason go up too. They didn't sit in the chair next to Reyna, they both stood behind. Reyna rolled her eyes and made a comment in Latin. When everyone seemed seated, she got up.

"Well, we're back." She said. "With the Greek delegates this time, if we may call you that. We welcome Piper McLean, Leo Valdez and Annabeth Chase into our camp."

There was a polite round of applause, but that's what it sounded like to Piper. Polite.

"And of course our returning soldier, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, consul to Rome." Reyna said. Jason got better reception, which Piper wasn't much surprised at. She clapped too.

Stories were exchanged. Jason told the senates about the quest to find Hera. He invited Leo to talk about the Argo II's planning and construction. The harpy behind Piper mumbled.

"Trireme- minimal marines, many oars, too many oars for marines."

"Shh Ella." Tyson said softly.

"Ella will sshhh for Tyson."

"We've had some sour patches here and there because of Gaia, but we got the boat blessed my Hephaestus and stuff-" Leo said.

"Who?" Someone called out. "Speak Latin, man."

"I can't," Leo said annoyed. "Anyways, Hephaestus is the Greek Spock."

"Vulcan." Jason said.

"Yes!" Leo said. "Anyways, we should be okay now."

"Should?" Piper swerved around to look at a tall and blond senator. Piper guessed he was older than he looked by the number of bars on his arm, and everyone listened when he spoke. But not everyone looked comfortable with that.

"Octavian…" Percy said.

"I'm Senator- I can talk, Jackson." He said.

"You also respect the praetors." Jason said. Octavian carried on.

"This is your boat, yes?" Octavian said.

"Leo frowned. "I like to think it belongs to cabin 9 of Camp Half-Blood, but okay. Yes."

Piper bit her cheek. She did not like the sound of Leo matching up to this guy in the speech domain. Just the way he made his words looked so superior and sophisticated…

"Then how do you not know if it's blessed or not?"

"Umm- we're sort of in a silence. Gods don't talk to us, we don't talk to gods much, that kind of thing?" Leo said.

"Wouldn't it be better if someone with a clue led the ship?" Octavian said. Leo scowled and opened his mouth but Piper got up to stop Leo from saying something rash.

"Leo here is the best Camp's got for this ship," she said quickly before Leo could speak. "He has this ship weaved in his destiny, and he's senior counsellor of Cabin 9, the Hephaestus cabin. If Leo can't be sure of the ship's blessing then nobody can." She tried to put every single ounce of belief in Leo she had in her words. Yes, Leo was an idiot sometimes, but this was something he was good, born and devoted for.

"I'm an Augur by the way," Octavian said. "I-"

"See the future," Piper finished. "Yes I know, but our oracle wouldn't be able to fly that ship so I don't see why you would. No offence." She added at the end.

A whisper went around the room worried, like when it started raining.

"I know things, Piper McLean." Octavian said. It sounded more like a threat than anything else. "I could find out the future… Or the past. Of things… Or people."

Piper felt herself pale.

"Octavian, sit down," Reyna said sharply. Sharper than she'd spoken yet.

Octavian did. Annabeth leaned into Piper.

"I don't like him. His words are venomous when you look past."

She nodded and listened again as Percy explained his part of the story. From waking up in the Spring, making his way South, the quest up North, the girl Hazel who'd come back from the death, Centurion Frank… Piper looked at Annabeth who shut her eyes and held her forehead in her hand like 'oh boy'. When she opened her eyes; Piper saw the gears spinning so hard they smoked.

The silence was a bit awkward and Piper surprised herself when she broke it with a 'now what?'

"Leo, Piper and Jason are prophecy children. I'm guessing so are Hazel, Frank and Percy." Annabeth said. "They have to go back to Greece and Rome."

"What about the seventh?" A senator asked.

"We have to assume that it'll come clear." Annabeth asked.

"Do you expect yourself to be part of it?" Octavian asked. Annabeth stood to match his level and just then, Piper remembered and appreciated how imposing the daughter of Athena could be, when you weren't her friend. Her intense grey eyes, the grey streak of hair, the stern expression, killer look… Octavian didn't budge though.

"No. I don't. I don't see greatness for myself in this prophecy."

"Are you implying that I do?"

"Your ideas are filtering in my words," she shrugged. "You suggested it- do you think so? I said nothing against you, Octavian."

There was a bit of a stare down that had the rest of the senate uncomfortable.

"We have a flight path already drafted," Piper said to break it. She could feel the tension between Octavian and Annabeth, and she didn't like it one bit. It made her feel like she was watching two very chemical substances being mixed right under her nose.

"We'll see to it," Reyna said. "In the meantime; today isn't the day to think of those things."

"She's right," Jason said. "If Percy only got his memory back and confirmed the rumours yesterday- there's still a lot you guys don't know that you should, and a lot that Camp Half-Blood's people don't know either. Secrets I was honour-bound to keep. I think everyone is willing to give this a shot. Everyone realises what would happen if we don't. If not, speak up freely and we'll figure something out."

The senate was quiet but Piper was sure Octavian was biting his tongue against the 'I!'

Frankly, if this guy was the high-held Centurion role model for all the other Romans, she was biting her lips nearly as hard.


	2. II Jason

II

Jason

It was all the same. All of it. The city might be a little destroyed from last night's battle –which Jason was super mad at himself for missing- but it was home. Walking across either the forum or the fort- he recognised everything. He was with people he'd grown up with, in a place that he knew like the back of his hand, and he was with people that he'd missed a lot.

It made Jason feel like everything was finally right, but he chided himself for it. He'd never _been _in enemy grounds.

It still felt like a weight off Jason's chest when he touched the ground and saw Reyna standing there. When she smiled at him whatever resistance he had left crashed and he just though 'home'. Getting tackle-hugs from Gwen, catching Dakota because he was drunk… It felt good for Jason that some things were still the same.

Reyna introduced him to her sister- whom Jason had only heard about- briefly. Hylla looked at Reyna with a raised eyebrow and then shook Jason's hand like she was trying to crack fingers.

"I have a sister too," he mentioned.

"You're kidding," Reyna said.

"No, her name's Thalia." Jason said. "She's lieutenant of Artemis. And Greek- which is why I haven't heard from her. She thought I was dead or something."

"The hunters?" Hylla said; wide eyes. "Gods of Olympus- black hair, blue eyes, punk clothing, big mouth?"

"That's her. I guess." Jason nodded. Hylla swore.

"Man, I have issues with that girl! Is she coming?"

A shadow passed over Jason's face and he felt shaky saying it.

"No," he said. "I'll… I'll explain later." He promised. The flow of people coming in was too wide, and this was something he needed to tell Reyna before anybody else here.

She looked at him and a flash of understanding passed on her face. She squeezed his hand quickly before letting go.

When his new friends saw the mess hall Jason had nearly laughed. A few people were already on the sofas, and a few plates were zooming around thanks to the aurae. Leo nearly got nailed by a plate of curry.

Annabeth was looking at the war banners on the ceiling and mouthing the Latin inscriptions as she read.

"Common, fifth cohort's that way." Jason said, nudging Piper's arm towards the back. It was still the spot near the kitchen and so forth, but it'd be too weird if he sat any other place. Jason had eaten at that corner for 6 years straight.

"This is a fancy set-up you guys have." Leo said, bouncing up and down on the couch.

"This? You should've been here yesterday." Percy said.

"The Feast of Fortune still happened?" Jason asked.

"The battle ended quickly enough." Reyna shrugged. Jason noticed she'd deserted the praetor's table to come sit with them, and he was silently thankful to her. He just really hoped she wouldn't refer to their last conversation right now…

_It was sundown and nearly everybody at Camp had gone to bed already, after the senate had adjourned. Jason had seen how frustrated Reyna had been so he hadn't let her go home where she'd probably just break something and go to sleep made, and had taken her to the green between the praetor's houses where they often trained together. _

_Twilight was a good time for them to train. It wasn't overly hot, it wasn't too dark, but the sun didn't flash off armour or blades, and nearly everybody was sleeping or getting to it; so they could rough play all the wanted, and trash talk like sailors. _

_Reyna slashed the head off another dummy so fiercely that Jason thought it was a good thing that the first cohort was a long way's away._

_"Good job," Jason said. "That's about 12 more than last time you were mad at Octavian."_

_"He's getting worst." She grumbled mad, kicking away the limp dummy. The sweat made strands of black hair stick to the back of her neck and her eyes were deadly cold. "Well, a better speaker, but that's worst for us."_

_"I know, but the people chose us. They know we can do it; they know Octavian can't, it'll be okay." Jason said. Reyna still wasn't convinced, and Jason wasn't either, as he remembered the various assassinations and betrayals, uprisings and tricks of Rome Lupa and centurions had told him about._

_He put a hand on her shoulder to get her to look up at him._

_"We're a strong team; he won't change that, not him out of all things."_

_Reyna smiled, and she leaned in and kissed him._

_"Sorry- I, I just… I've wanted to do that for a long time." She said._

_"That's fine, because so have I." Jason said._

He didn't regret the fact she'd kissed him, or the fact he'd kissed her back. Not at all. The only thing he did regret was that it was one kiss and then off to random places for 8 months. Even Reyna wouldn't like that. But right now, Piper was right there, and she'd noticed Jason getting more distant after his memory had come back. Which he'd needed to figure things out and get used to the idea that Octavian's paranoia actually meant something, and to stop feeling so home sick. She'd left him some space. A lot of space. Jason still wanted to be her friend, she was cool, but Piper didn't exactly get that, and now she looked at everybody in the room under a microscope.

"Jason." Reyna elbowed him. He snapped out of it and met her eyes. They scared most people off, and they scared Jason too sometimes, but most of the time they drawed him in.

"Are you going to eat or are you fasting?" She asked.

"Oh right, sorry. I was just…"

"Overwhelmed?" Percy guessed.

"Big time." He nodded. Percy looked overwhelmed himself, an arm around Annabeth and looking at the Greek weapons and armour and demigods.

Chiron and Annabeth and Jake had told him about Percy. Actually, everyone had told him about Percy. He'd been one of the three big subjects of talk at camp with the Argo II and the romans being the second and third, which got Jason a lot of questions about Rome- which was especially frustrating when it was something he was honour-bound not to reveal (Stoll brothers? Yeah- they didn't get what that meant).

This guy looked okay, like someone Jason would actually trust. At any rate; Jason could sympathise with him. Plucked out of where you fit like a puzzle piece and trying to fit into the last's spot, in a picture that wasn't even the same? It wasn't easy. As much as Jason had wanted to make Camp life work for him, it hadn't been as smooth as he'd have liked it to. Like it or not; he had instincts, and his instincts weren't dying down anytime soon. He'd even sleepwalked West once, and would've died in the forest if a hunter hadn't caught up to him (he'd sort of become their general brother to all).

He wondered if Percy had had anything like that to deal with.

"Dude, this place is huge!" Leo said looking around. "How much time did this all take you?"

"4 days, a legion's trained to build and rebuild elsewhere." Someone said. They all spun around towards the person who'd spoken, and the girl blushed. She played with her hands and readjusted rectangular glasses with black rectangular frames on her nose. She played with her hair when she got nervous too- but it was tucked under a dark blue bandana right now.

"Umm…" She turned to Annabeth. "Hello. My name's Quinn, from the fourth cohort. And I heard that you were a daughter of Athena- who is Minerva, and that's my mom too, except in the roman form, so… I just wanted to say hi and welcome you to camp, and here." She handed Annabeth a book.

"We have a big stock of books here, except not many in English, and I wasn't sure how much Latin you knew –although I'm sure you're really smart, you look smart, like a, a, strategist- but I-anyways, I figured you probably knew Ancient Greek, so even if it is about Rome because I wasn't sure how much you knew, umm…" She spoke really quickly and got lost in her words, stuttering a lot.

"Thank you. I'm Annabeth." She said holding out her hand. Quinn caught her breath and shook Annabeth's hand.

"Quinn." She said. "Quinn Hunter."

"Pleased to meet you." Annabeth said. Quinn nodded anxiously.

"Umm, I've got to go, my centurion's, well, yes. Bye." She said before scurrying away.

"Her centurion's what?" Leo asked.

"Probably afraid of the Greeks," Reyna said. "A lot of them are. It all branches up to your friend Octavian, from the senate. Most of it anyways."

Annabeth turned back around smiling to herself and reading the title.

"'Ancient Rome in Basics and in Depth'," she read. "That was really sweet of her."

"Page 50, Romans first encountered the elephant in 280 BC. Pyrrhus had transported twenty of the beasts to Italy by ship and, at the Battle of Heraclea, the unfamiliar animals routed the Roman cavalry; "their horses, before they got near the animals, were terrified and ran away with their riders" (Plutarch, Life, XVII.3)." Ella muttered.

Eyes turned towards her. Annabeth flipped to page 50 and looked up at Ella.

"Word for word," she said impressed.

"Ella has an awesome memory." Hazel said, fingering one of the harpy's feathers.

"Ella smart." Tyson muttered. Both he and Ella went beat red and Jason exchanged a look with Leo. Leo muttered something like 'mini winged Cyclops- watch out world!'

"Do you remember the number of days it took to build this? 3 to 4 seems really little." Leo asked.

"Not here long. Ella running. Weed whacker before."

"Pardon?" Piper asked.

"Phineas was going after the harpies with a weed whacker. Not quite sure why." Frank shrugged.

"Phineas will have weed whacker. Not long, nope, nope, not long at all." Ella said shaking her head solemnly. Looks exchanged.

"What do you mean, Ella?" Annabeth asked. "Is Phineas going to… come back?"

"Come back for Ella. Ella smart." The harpy said, agitated. Jason was confused. He'd never heard of a smart harpy, he didn't think they came in smart. Obviously they did now that he'd met Ella, but still, the way she said that made Percy, Hazel and Frank look uncomfortable. He decided he'd ask later- they were obviously not yelling secrets from here.

"That's okay, Ella, we like you smart." Hazel said with a smile. The harpy smiled and Tyson passed her a half of his peanut butter sandwich. She held it in her claws and munched on tiny pieces at a time.

The first 10 minutes was pleasant talk and catching up and introductions. Jason was actually relieved. He wasn't sure what he'd expected, but Piper laughing at Bobby's new lame joke of the week, or Annabeth and Reyna comparing notes on weaponry, Leo and Frank talking about… Well, he lost track of that conversation pretty quickly, with Hazel actually talking to people… Well, that hadn't been it. He crossed Percy's eyes for a minute. The son of Poseidon's eyes widened in 'wow'. Jason nodded back at him and paid attention when Leo asked him a question about why he wasn't nicknamed Fulmy for 'armed with lightning'. Hilarious Valdez.

But Jason hadn't missed the way Leo had flared up with Octavian. He was _sure _that if Piper hadn't been there Leo would've burst into flames. Honestly; he couldn't blame the guy. Octavian was just aggravating, and Jason saw him as bad news for this since the beginning. He'd talk to Reyna about it later.

Nobody mentioned a giant, a quest, a flying ship, or any problem until…

"I actually thought Octavian was going to throw the knife at you." Dakota told Piper. "That took guts, kid."

"Kid?" Piper pouted. "I'm two years younger than you!"

"Kid." Dakota repeated, taking some more Kool-Aid. "But seriously, Octavian's been… Locco."

"That's not for you to say, buddy," Bobby said, "But seriously, he's been driving Reyna _nuts_."

Reyna shot him a look.

"I was doing fine until he got in my face." She said.

"Mm-hmm, that was how many hours after Jason disappeared?" Dakota said. Reyna looked like she was going to snap his arm in two but she relaxed.

"Five and a half." She said rubbing the sides of her head with a hand, picking a nacho off her plate with another.

"Score one for the drunks," Dakota said showing two fingers.

"You know what, you're pretty cool." Leo told Dakota.

"You too." Dakota grinned. He held up his hand but missed Leo's by a longshot. That was the most Dakota-like thing Jason had seen in a while; probably why he stole the flask.

"Hey!" Dakota complained.

"Stop it, that stuff's not good for you." Jason said.

"It is!"

"Only for your taste buds." Reyna said. Dakota made a wild reach for the flask but Jason tossed it to Reyna, who pulled off the cap.

"It's for your own good Cody," she said. Then she tipped the flask and poured it onto the floor. It disappeared as it went.

"Hey!"

"Water," Bobby said, pushing a glass in front of him.

"What?" Dakota said like _'what the Pluto you making me drink here?'_

"H2O, it's good for you, I promise." Annabeth said.

"I don't like it." Dakota said.

"Water's the best for you." Percy sustained. The discussion flared and Dakota decided to go find somewhere where he'd be allowed to have Kool-Aid.

"It's Kool-Aid? I thought it was wine!" Piper said.

"No, but the sugar in that is as bad as the alcohol." Reyna said. "Mix it with the ADHD and he always looks drunk. Nice guy though. Sometimes."

"He hasn't been sober since the attack on Othrys." Bobby said, "He lost his sister. It hasn't been going great with him."

"_A hero's soul cursed blade shall reap," _Ella muttered. Jason frowned. He'd heard that at Camp Half-Blood, but never here. Where had..?

"What was that, Ella?" Annabeth asked, although Jason knew that she'd heard perfectly. Frank, Hazel and Percy exchanged looks.

"Annabeth, common, I'll introduce you to… Someone." Percy said. He took her hand and they got up, Percy dragging Annabeth away by the hand. Leo wolf-whistled and Percy turned to make a face, Annabeth gave him a look.

There was something about Ella they weren't telling Jason. Same thing about Nico; he should be here. He promised himself not to bring it up because it was held secret for a reason; he'd ask later.

He felt Reyna's eyes on him.

"I'll explain later." She said softly, like she'd been reading his thoughts, (which wasn't a first). "You've… Missed a lot."

Jason nodded, even if he was pretty sure he was the only one who heard. He felt other eyes on him too; the other romans staring him. One of them was elbowing her friend, as if to make her go forwards, but the other refused like the floor was dotted with land mines.

"I've got to go," Jason said. He got up.

"Where?" Leo asked.

"See some people," Jason said. "Everyone goes around at meals and well, I've been gone a while. You can go too."

"Umm…" Piper said.

"Sure!" Leo said. "Point me to my peeps, Jason."

"Peeps?" Reyna asked.

"Siblings." Jason said, although it felt like translating. "Umm… Morgan's over there eating that sloppy Joe, Hanna's got the blue hair, Martin's got the toolbelt, Jacky is the girl over there- no not there, there- yes her… Yeah, that's them."

"4 of them? That's it? Well, see you Pipes and people." He said before totting off. Jason hoped Leo wasn't going to say something stupid. He was pretty sure if he called either one of them children of Spock he was going to lose a hand.

After making sure Leo got to Morgan's table and got himself a seat no problem, Jason went off.

"Hey, can I sit?" He asked some kids form the fifth cohort.

* * *

><p>Ella's random splurge on the elephant: [.edu~grout/encyclopaedia_]


	3. III Piper

III

Piper

Piper was with a bunch of people she didn't know now, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't be the last time so she tried to make do.

"So you're one of the praetor's?" She asked Reyna. Reyna put her glass down.

"Yes," she said. "Thankfully."

"Why thankfully?" Piper asked, legit curious now.

"Oh great- repeats, I'm out. Anybody know if Becca's out of the infirmary yet? I'm sure a dashing legacy of Cupid would cheer her up…" Bobby said, getting up and leaving.

Reyna shook her head and turned back to Piper.

"Because with Jason gone… All I'm going to say is that not everyone can say no to Octavian." Reyna said. "He's been pestering me over and over for elections. He said I was trying to suck up all the power of Rome and bring it back to a Julio-Claudius era." She rolled her eyes.

"I… I don't know, I never really believed Jason was dead. Ever. I didn't know where he was, what he was doing or why he wasn't here; but I knew he was doing _something_. Does that sound stupid?"

"Not if you know Jason." Piper said. Reyna smiled.

"I guess not. Anyways, I resisted but when the Feast of Fortune came closer, I had to do something. Percy seemed like the only one who could even come close to praetor. I don't know yet if that was a good idea."

"What do you mean? I've never met him, but everyone at Camp Half-Blood said he was a nice guy."

"Oh he is," Reyna said. "I believe that 100%. But he's off again on this boat of yours. You won't stay here long, will you?"

"I don't think so. I'm not in charge of this much, but I don't think that was in the plans."

Reyna nodded like she'd just been confirmed a horrible piece of news.

"So this is only a temporary solution for you, right?" Piper said. Reyna nodded.

"A few days at the most," she sighed. "And then Octavian will pounce back, except worst."

"Worst?"

"He's been stung, Piper. When they raised Percy –a filthy _Graecus_ to him- on the shield instead of him, it was a nightmare. His pride was wounded and that makes any man dangerous."

"Are you going to have to have an election this time?" Piper asked.

"I don't know." Reyna said. She passed her hand through her shot of black hair.

"But you can't be alone, can you? Not for as long as this quest is going to take us. It's not fair to you to have to keep this up." Piper defended. She felt bad for this girl she'd just met. She was basically holding the whole camp –fort, city, everything- on her shoulders and trying to keep it safe by herself. That weight deserves at least two people.

Reyna smiled sadly.

"Can you keep a secret, Piper?"

Piper nodded.

"I don't have a choice. Look; do you know why Octavian wants to be praetor so bad? Because every kid looked at a praetor at some point and thought 'oh cool, I want that' but not all of them want it as much as Octavian does."

"No, I just met him." Piper said although it seemed obviously written to her. "Hunger for power?"

"As much as an Empousai is blood thirsty, yes. And he's ready to do just about anything to have things his way- and things his way are about as pleasant as high heels and being sewn in a bag of snakes. Fact is; somebody has to keep Octavian back and little people will, and in that number a smaller portion _can_. I won't take the risk to leave just in case one of those people don't make it here. I can't. I want to keep this alive." She said looking around the mess hall. Piper followed her gaze.

Kids were laughing and hoping tables and pointing and talking at, to and about the new arrivals. Some kid was teasing Ella with -cheese? - sending her into mumbling about arachnophobia, claustrophobia, apotemnophobia, coulrophobia, and a lot of other 'ias'. Percy and Annabeth had found a new spot, talking to a couple of kids from the third cohort, Annabeth holding on to that book. Leo was pointing to the blue hair of the girl he was talking to. The food whirled around and smacked the kids who got up too quickly to go share news or gossip.

"I can't think of this as dead." Piper told Reyna.

"Me neither, but it can happen. It happened with all the other legions of Rome." Reyna said. "But that's just my problem right now. What's your story?"

Piper told her about meeting Jason at the Wilderness school, but she decided to leave a little part of the fake memories out. Not. Willing. To. Yell. That. Out.

"Charmspeak, hmm? That's cool, and it can be really powerful. I only heard rumours about it, but I guess they aren't now, hum?"

"There are two of us at Camp who can do it. Me and, well, my sister Drew." She felt uncomfortable just talking about Drew. She'd had to hand over the counsellorship to Drew when she left and she didn't like that. Not for Mitchell, Lacy, or any of them. Reyna sensed it.

"I'm guessing this Drew isn't as great of a sister as I am," Hylla said, sitting down on a couch and stealing a nacho from Reyna's plate. Reyna smacked her hand, and caught the falling nacho.

"If she's anything like you I pity Piper." Reyna said, eating the nacho.

At the other end of the mess hall there was a 'ZAP!' and someone yelled 'Fulminata baby!' as fireworks went off inside the dinning pavilion.

"Should've seen it coming," Reyna said as people started applauding. Piper joined in, watching the sparks go around and around in spirals and then BAM!

It happened so fast; Piper wasn't sure how her senses had even picked it up.

The fireworks slammed into a heavy banner- two bars of iron at each end of cloth, held by a chain. The chain cracked and the banner came rushing down towards the earth.

Piper pounced to her feet knocking over the table, and tackled Reyna- and the banner fell exactly where she'd been sitting. That's when the two metal rods at each end exploded into bright green flames that Piper had seen before- Greek fire.

Hylla had somersaulted out of the way fine, and she rushed to see her sister. Piper got off Reyna's back and saw that the table had been smashed by the banner, and burnt and scorched by the explosions.

"Gods of Olympus- Reyna, are you..?" Hylla asked in a rush.

"I'm fine Hylla," she said, just a little shocked as if someone had given her a cake and yelled 'surprise! Happy birthday!' and not 'you just nearly got smashed by an unusually heavy explosive war banner! Fun!'.

Jason ran up and knelt next to her.

"You okay?" He asked, helping her to her feet.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. It didn't hit me." She said, waving Jason aside like he was annoying with his worrying. Percy and Annabeth ran up.

"Are you-"

"If anybody else asks me that there _will _be injuries."

She turned to face Piper.

"Thank you," she said. "I… It shouldn't be heavy enough to smash the table- it shouldn't have been explosive with the- what was that?"

"Leo!" Jason called. Leo himself jogged back to the table and crouched next to the banner.

"And you say these things are made out of what exactly?" He asked the praetors.

"Just regular fabric." Reyna said. "Cotton, satin sometimes, wool…"

"This 'aint fabric. Looks like some of the threads are actually plutonium- heaviest metal on earth. And they're all part of this Hades-complicated trigger system- the two rods were filled with Greek fire, just ready to get a shock and explode. Why do you have that weaved into your banners?"

"I don't know. And when did Rome ever fight 'die Graecus'?" Jason said reading off the banner.

Piper felt like she lost some important parts inside her stomach and chest area. She turned to look at the other Greek half-bloods; Annabeth, Leo- even Percy looked a little queasy. But he hid it.

Jason helped Reyna up and the wind spirits put food delivery on hiatus to clean up the table.

"Whoever did this you are going to be found, and you are going to pay." Reyna said, fiercely. It made Piper quiver a bit, even if she'd just been talking to Reyna fine ten seconds ago. "The Greek half-bloods are under the protection and aid of Rome. You are more of an enemy than them by doing that. Who set off the fireworks?"

Someone whimpered, and as all eyes looked back; Piper saw it was a faun with an afro.

"Don?" Jason asked. "What- why are you even here?"

"Looking for, you know denarii. But I swear I didn't do it yo, the funny Greek boy gave me this awesome coin thing, and the Percy kid is like, cool, so, I didn't do it!"

Looking at the silly faun with his Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, Piper couldn't bring herself to believe it was him. She didn't buy it and she was about to tell Reyna and Jason that, when Percy did.

"Reyna, it couldn't have been him." Percy reasoned. "How could he have done it? How could he have gotten his hands on fireworks anyways, he's homeless."

"That's a good question. Don, where did you get those fireworks?" Jason asked.

"I had a dream."

"A dream?"

"Do fauns get dreams like half-bloods?" Reyna asked, wiping peanut butter from the hem of her jeans.

"No, which is why I was really crept out."

"And you didn't tell anybody? With all the higher powers going around and twisting minds- you didn't think of that?" Reyna sighed and calmed herself down. "What was your dream, Don?"

"Well, just a voice. Telling me that, you know- fireworks would be cool and there was a box nearby."

"Don- what was the voice like?" Hazel asked him, sounding pretty afraid. Don scratched his head.

"I don't know…"

"Was it, like, sleepy and hollow? And a girl?" Leo asked, pale.

"No, it was a dude, it was a dude…" Don said. Leo and Hazel seemed to exhale- two at once. Piper felt relieved herself. Not Gaia. They were still safe from Gaia in here.

"Don; if you get another dream, you have to tell us." Jason said. "And in the meantime… you might want to get out of here before the Lares get aggravated."

Thunder rumbled, which covered the sounds of hooves running out.

"Well," Octavian said. "That was unfortunate." Piper didn't like the sound of it. His definition of 'unfortunate' sounded a whole lot different from hers.

"Unfortunate, yes." Jason said. "An accident? Not at all."


	4. IV Hazel

IV

Hazel

She'd followed Percy blindly out of the barrack. Frank was there too, which reassured Hazel that she wasn't in trouble (at least not in that much trouble), and so was Annabeth. That was all she could make out in the night, until she realised where they were going.

"Why are we going to the praetors' houses?" Hazel whispered.

"To talk." Percy said.

He knocked on the door and Reyna opened up. She was still fully dressed, and her eyes were murderous. Hazel tried to look at something less terrifying- like the ground, or her sword, or Frank's fully loaded razor-sharp quiver.

They walked inside and Hazel felt excited- even if she knew that this couldn't be good. She'd never seen the praetors' house before, nor had a lot of people- totally off limit.

There was a kind of vestibule but Percy dragged them into the atrium.

It was a big room and the center part had a huge chunk of roof missing. Right under there was a pool of clear water. The floors were mosaic tiles and the walls were a rich purple colour with golden metal etchings of heroes and beasts and monsters on the walls, with plants hanging in every corner, wrapping around a flat screen television, a small altar called a _lararium _found in every roman house, and black leather couches. The place seemed to lead into beautiful roman gardens that made Hazel wish it was light out so she could see them better. Benches were installed and you couldn't see a sign that Reyna lived there, except for lights turned on.

It seemed like such a big place to live on your own, and so much of it was left empty. No wonder praetors always got closer to each other, being alone in here all the time would scare Hazel.

"Jason just went to get Piper and Leo," she said troubled. "But we need to make it quick- it's hard to do anything behind Octavian's back."

"Behind Octavian's back?" Frank asked. Ella was perched on the edge of the water basin.

"Trickery," she said. "Schemes and tricks. _50 Tricks to Teach your Dog-"_

"Ella, shh." Tyson said to calm her down. The harpy took in a deep breath and calmed down a bit.

"Sophie Collins." She finished.

"This isn't trickery Ella," Reyna said. "Octavian is trickery. Octavian is scheming. We have to counter-scheme against it or we're all dead."

The door opened and closed. Jason led Leo and Piper into the atrium.

"Let myself in," he told Reyna. "Hope you don't mind."

"Never have."

"Good; because we have a lot to talk about." Annabeth said, troubled.

Leo looked at the roof. He'd thrown on some clothes and you could tell he was still asleep because his shirt was inside out and his tool belt buckled too loosely around his waist.

"You want me to fix your roof or something?" He mumbled. Hazel rolled her eyes, but inside her, half of her was laughing, the other half screaming like it was under torture. That was such a Sammy thing to say- but was this really Sammy?

He was a Valdez- and gods he looked like Sammy. Hazel was ready to bet that if he kissed her on the cheek again, it would be just as electric. She wanted it to be Sammy so bad too…

But he was 70 years younger than Sammy was- and Sammy was dead anyways. Gaia had said.

_Gaia also said Percy was a pawn. She said she'd make everything okay. Gaia is a liar. Could she have lied about this?_

"The atrium is partially open roofed to allow sunshine in and to collect rainwater, Leo, it's not broken." Annabeth said.

"And you're here as honorary prophecy child- you'll see its _super _fun." Percy said, his voice dripping sarcasm like rain clouds.

"First thing's first- the banner. Who changed it?" Jason asked eyeing Reyna cautiously.

"It's so high up- you'd need a ladder to get there at least. And a disturbance like that would be noticed." Frank said.

"He's right, plus you'd need somewhere to hide the banner while it's being made." Annabeth said. "Whoever did this had to have at least 3 things- height, material and privacy."

"Speaking of material- where does one get plutonium?" Hazel asked. That's when everyone looked at her. Hazel felt like everything inside of her stopped what it was doing.

"You don't mean…"

"It's a metal, Hazel. It's from the earth- people will put one and two together and, well, you control the earth." Percy said, trying to be nice about it.

Hazel's insides went into a death drop.

"I didn't!" She said. "No! I've been on a quest with Percy and-" She was going to say something about Leo, but that would have sounded _beyond _suspicious. It was already awkward enough that Frank and Percy knew about Sammy –especially Frank- but Leo… She had to figure things out first. Then she'd talk to him. Maybe Sammy was his grandfather –the thought made her heart ache-, maybe it was just a freak coincidence, or… Her brain whizzed with panic, indignation and questions that made her want to scream.

Thankfully Percy cut her anyways.

"Hazel- no one is blaming you."

"Nobody here is blaming her." Annabeth corrected. "That Octavian? I don't like him, and I have a feeling that it's a mutual thing."

"Yeah, ditto. Thinking he can work a flying boat just because he's got godly authority to destroy kid toys." Leo said. He'd obviously taken that remark to heart.

"I know what an Augury is and everything," Piper said, "But what's his story?"

"His mother was a child of Apollo," Reyna grumbled. "A good one at that; she was praetor of the legion once, and she made it go far. He has the gift of prophecy, and he's our augury. Centurion of the first cohort and all- but that's not good enough for him, he sweeps titles up and demands higher ones. He's been after the title of Praetor forever- since the last two died in the war and Jason and I were raised on shield. He's been pestering me for the last few months 'Reyna you're just vacuuming power, you need to declare elections'. I think he'd have redone the Titan War if he could get his chance." Reyna said, disgusted. "I was beyond relieved when the legion raised Percy- Percy's not a schemer, he's not a backstabber and he's not a liar."

"And Octavian is?"

"Definitely."

"He's also a jerk." Frank offered.

"But enough of a jerk to try and kill someone?" Piper said.

"There's something else about Octavian though- he's believed the rumours about Greek demigods since he heard them. He is incredibly suspicious of you, and he is incredibly mad because his ideas of extermination were discarded. But he hasn't given them up. He hates the Graecus."

"Oh…" Leo made a face. "Okay, that… Is he popular? Do a lot of people believe him?"

"Yes." Everyone who'd spent time at Camp said at once.

"Okay… But is it really him?" Leo asked.

"I don't know."

"There's no way of knowing, if he's as smart as he thinks he'll have covered his tracks and erased any possible evidence."

"It was probably an immortal," Piper said. "Don had dreams."

"We're not getting anywhere." Reyna said, shaking her head.

"I have something else to bring up. Ella." Annabeth said. "What's up with her?"

"What do you mean, 'what's up with Ella'?" Reyna asked. "We told you exactly where Ella's from."

"So here's one question- where in Olympus did Ella learn to read?" Annabeth said.

That hit everyone like Mars' grenades and Hazel smacked her forehead. They hadn't thought of that. Ella was a harpy- a kind of monster- starving in Portland. Monsters were barely ever half as smart as demigods- so how did Ella read? It was the most obvious thing, but nobody had thought of it and it seemed so stupid to everyone now.

"I…" Percy looked at she and Frank dumbfound, like maybe his memory just had another blank and they would know.

"We never thought of it." Hazel admitted. Annabeth nodded, as if she hadn't really expected an answer.

"But there is something about Ella that we haven't told you, we just haven't had time to." Percy said.

"Secrets- tricks- magic tricks- The magician gives two volunteers each half a deck of cards and leaves the room (or turns his back)…" Ella went on in her own little bubble as Percy told them about the prophecy lines Ella knew. He looked at Annabeth the whole time, staring in her eyes like she'd understand something they didn't.

"So she _knows _these books? She knows what's going to happen? By heart?" Reyna said shocked.

"We think," Hazel said. "What other prophetic book that got burnt?"

"But… How old does that make her?" Leo said. "If these books were lost in Ancient times… What the heck?"

"We don't know, but those lines mean something." Frank told him.

Jason, Leo and Piper turned to Annabeth straight away.

"What?" Frank asked.

"Frank; my godly parent _is _Athena; the goddess of wisdom." She said. "It…"

"It sounds like it's talking about you." Piper said, frowning.

"Well, you're the only daughter of Athena here." Percy said. "Anybody else like Quinn is a daughter of Minerva, right?"

"I don't know, Percy, I'm not Wikipedia. And even if I was; Wikipedia is full of faults."

"Wikipedia. Anyone use. Anyone change. Ella doesn't like- Ella doesn't trust."

"And you're right on that one, Ella." Piper said. "But I have a question too- where's Nico?"

Hazel felt like something inside of her was cracking. She'd tried long and hard to figure out where Nico was, but all she got were tantalising and scary images of Nico being tortured or starved or up to his ankles in raising lava or some other apocalyptical event that had 'GAIA' written all over it.

Percy and Frank looked at her discreetly just to check for hairline cracks.

She took a deep breath and spoke up for her brother.

"He went looking for the doors of death," Hazel said. "And now Gaia's got him somewhere."

Eyes widened.

"Nico is gone?" Tyson finally said in total shock.

"_The earth shall take what the seven want." _Ella muttered. Hazel's concentration flicked back to the harpy, who kept counting the scale-like rings on her talons.

"Was that another..?"

"Yes," Percy said. Piper nodded.

"He's a kind of hostage then." Annabeth said.

"A prisoner of war." Reyna said.

"Don't worry Hazel, we'll get Nico back." Hazel's attention flicked back to the 3 children of war. They were all so different, but so alike at the same time.

"Seriously- what do we do?"

"Look; the reason we're here in the first place; Octavian." Reyna said.

"She's right," Annabeth said. "If Octavian's power dies, the quest against Gaia will be stronger and we'll get Nico and whoever else the earth will take back."

"We need to do something about that guy." Percy said.

"You think he's the one who set off the fireworks?" Hazel asked. Reyna hesitated.

"I don't know about that," she said. "I can't wrap my mind around the idea he'd try to actually hurt someone."

"Didn't Julius Caesar get killed?" Frank said. Reyna, Percy and Jason stared daggers at him.

"Look; whatever happened, it'll probably happen again, and near-death experiences are only the tip of the iceberg." Reyna said.

"She's right," Annabeth said. She looked at Jason with half a smile. "You had no idea what Greek fire was when you came to Camp. You guys don't fight with that, do you? It's a Greek thing."

"So that makes it look like we were the ones who set the trap and wanted to make Reyna a pancake." Percy said.

"I really don't appreciate the way you say that." Reyna said coldly. "But Annabeth is right- it does. Nobody knew what it was until Leo called it 'Greek Fire'."

"I shouldn't have said that…" Leo muttered.

"If you wouldn't have given an answer we'd have looked secretive and tricky," Piper said. "You couldn't win in this one, Leo. I don't think anybody could."

"She's right," Reyna said. "Just like nobody can get answers just yet. All we know for sure is that you guys aren't supposed to be here; and it'll show big time."


	5. V Jason

V

Jason

He stuck around with Reyna after the others left for the barracks.

"What's wrong?" Reyna asked him.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked.

"You're happy to be back," she said. "But at the same time you're worried."

"You nearly got killed, and this looks like it'll blow up in our faces. I think I have total rights to be worried." He said.

"I know, and I get that. But you look worried for more. Come on, Jason, I know you. I can read your face. Even this morning you looked nervous, when you were telling Hylla about your sister. Thalia right?"

"Yeah," Jason said.

"And you weren't worried just because you met my sister, like the rest of camp," Reyna said. She didn't ask Jason for an answer, but just the way she sat down straight, facing him, and looked at him told him that she was waiting for one. Actions always worked better for Reyna.

"A lot's happening," he finally said.

"Your sister didn't come," Reyna said. "Is that why?"

"I haven't seen Thalia since we separated at the Wolf House," Jason said. "Nobody's heard from the hunters, nobody can contact them, we've tried to prey to Dianna, well, Artemis, but she's as silent as the next god…"

"Oh no…" Reyna said.

"I don't think they're all dead, but… But bad things are happening right now and Thalia wouldn't just ignore the whole camp. Not when Percy was missing, and she just figured out I was alive, and everything else..."

Reyna took his hand.

"She's going to be okay. Trust me: all-girl power groups are a force of nature."

Jason smirked.

"Besides, even if she's Greek; you two are still related. If she's anything like you, she's going to make it, and she'll make sure everyone does in the process."

"Thanks," Jason said. He could see her point. He'd seen the hunters battle an army of undying monsters and keep it up; they weren't going down without a fight anytime soon. "You always know what to say. Or at least with me."

"Are you making fun of my public speaking skills?"

"Yes."

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

This time Jason was the one who leaned in for the kiss. Reyna wrapped her arms around his neck and Jason wished that would last forever. Everything was so much simpler with Reyna then it was with anybody else, any other time, any place. It was so confusing, but his ideas were so much clearer with Reyna. She could get him to put a million thoughts in line and sort the good from the bad- and that was something Jason needed right now.

"You going to be okay?" Reyna asked when she walked him to the center green.

"'Course," Jason said. "I'm ready to sleep home again."

"Sorry to keep you up," she joked. Jason made a face at her, wished her goodnight and crashed in his bed the second he walked into the house- which felt so incredibly good it should have been illegal. In that 5 second span between lying down and falling to sleep, he didn't care about the fact that Percy should technically have the house (which he'd been arguing with Percy about for the whole day), about Octavian, hate, or anything. He was just home.


	6. VI Piper

VII

Percy

When he saw Octavian's look, Percy suddenly got a bit scared. The way he looked at Annabeth made him suddenly afraid that he would hurt her or make her do triple the work or _something._

Then he saw Annabeth's look and he got afraid for Octavian.

She held her head high and she was wearing her bronze armour, her knife and a sword tied at the side. She held her head high and her grey eyes were so intense under her helmet… Even after 5 years of knowing her the look she followed Octavian with as he came down crept Percy out.

"You're kidding, right?" He told the praetors softly.

"_Q_ui_d es quod metuis_?" Annabeth said- in perfect Latin no less. That surprised Octavian. "Q_uod ego calcitrare vestrum podex?"_

"I'm not afraid." Octavian sustained, taking Annabeth's taunts seriously.'What are you afraid of? That I'll kick your butt?'

"Good, because she's in your cohort." Jason said. Octavian shot them all a dark look.

"Follow me," he said sharply before turning back to his legion, probably not expecting Annabeth to follow as quickly as she did. Percy bit the inside of his cheek. She was going to be surrounded by kids who were influenced by Octavian every day, kids who believed what he did. But if one person had to be out there to impress them… Percy picked Annabeth out of a crowd of a thousand.

The assembly broke and the cohorts went out to their own classes- eagle training, gladiator training, Latin lessons, paintball with ghosts, endurance building (basically hanging from a bar until your arms felt like pudding, or the activity was over), and a whole bunch of stuff.

He watched Annabeth follow the legionnaires, then Leo, and Piper. He couldn't tell which one was more afraid- their faces were plain.

"Piper's got Latin and she'll be fine because she speaks two languages with Latin roots, Leo's got endurance and his arms are strong because of forge work, and Annabeth's got endurance running, which she does for fun at camp anyways." Jason said, following the three with his eyes.

"They'll be fine," Percy said. "I trust them. So what about us? What the heck are we supposed to do?"

Reyna and Jason both smiled and Percy nearly regretted asking.

"Follow us," Jason said.

Percy figured it out soon enough; they were in the Fields of Mars, away from the kids who were practising falling from eagles without killing themselves. A medic stood there, reading a book until needed.

Reyna drew her _gladius_.

"Whenever," she called out to Percy. He drew Riptide and raised it just in time to block Reyna's sword. Reyna swept at his feet but he hooked one of them around her ankle, and she fell too, he pinned her to the ground, but before he got his sword to her throat she stabbed him in the side and pushed him off. She did that trick that every action movie star does- swinging her legs while she was on her back and getting to her feet.

Percy couldn't keep track of how he blocked, who stroke, it all zoomed past like the battle was on fast forward. Reyna wasn't a daughter of War just by title.

She blocked Percy's strike just in time, but Percy twisted her blade with the flat of his own sword and she dropped her sword. Percy swiped the hand that reached for the dagger and got it under her chin.

"Oh man…" Jason said.

"You have _got _to teach me that." Reyna told him. He lowered his sword. "That's the quickest I've been disarmed in, well, in 8 months."

"Easy once you get the hand of it," Percy said. "It's the first disarming technique I ever learnt."

"The last you need if it worked so well."

"Keep your options large," Reyna scolded. "Show, again." She picked up her own sword and had Percy show it over and over until she felt satisfied. Watching Reyna's dark eyes follow his hand's movement, he could easily see how she'd taught herself how to use weapons onboard a pirate ship.

"Come here, Grace," she said. Jason walked up to her, holding his sword at ready. Reyna lashed out first, and Jason held his ground okay against Reyna. They were obviously used to fighting each other. But in the end, Reyna managed to twist Jason's blade from her hand with the flat of hers and it clattered to the ground.

"That's it?" She asked.

"Yeah," Percy said. "Or at least it worked."

"I can bring a sword from your hand no problem Jackson," as fast as the wind she drew her dagger, and in a move that would've made her mother, the war goddess, proud, the sword fell from Percy's hand.

"I just want to know the strategy," Reyna said. "Or more importantly; the Greek strategy. That's something new to me, but it's basically your whole life for you."

Percy wasn't sure what to say to that- yeah, he'd already covered sword fighting classes in the arena last summer and winter, but teach Reyna? She already scared him, no need to teach her more moves, for gods' sake.

"Sure," he said.

"It's not that hard; if you've trained Roman you can switch to Greek and vice-versa. That's what Annabeth said." Jason told her.

"You fight Greek now?" Reyna asked Jason with a smile like 'I don't believe you'.

"No," Jason admitted, "Not naturally when you just charge me. But, you know, I guess I could."

"Then come here," Percy said. He felt excited. This was Thalia's little brother? So in 3, 2, 1…

He caught Jason's first stab with the flat of his sword and sent it back. Jason didn't flinch, and stabbed at his feet, which Percy blocked.

He had no idea how long the fight went, but the only focus point he had was Jason's sword and his feet and how he was placed, which way he'd swing…

"Okay, this is boring just watching you guys," Reyna called from the sidelines.

"We haven't been fighting that long," Jason said, slashing at Percy's feet with his sword. Percy blocked and tried to hit the blade from Jason's hand.

"You're just super impatient."

"Just disarm each other or something. Percy- Grace always moves the same way and he's very repetitive even if he knows more than that. Jason- he can't fight Roman yet."

Eventually Jason got Percy by surprise and Percy dropped his sword.

"Good job," he said offering Percy a hand to get up. Percy accepted.

"You fight with both, you know. You stab and you slash."

"You fight Greek, it rubs off." Jason said. Percy nodded, and Jason turned to Reyna.

"Okay, now I'm going to have to show this punk who's boss." Reyna said with a grin.

"You try," Jason smiled. Percy might not be a genius; but he realised that they hadn't had much time to talk alone since yesterday morning. Besides, there was something he felt like he had to do…

"I'll be back in a sec, I just want to check on everyone." Percy said. Reyna nodded.

"Probably a good idea."

"No offence to you two, but I don't trust everyone here."

"That's fine; _we_ don't trust everybody here either." Reyna said. "Take Scipio if you like."

"No thanks, I'm fine." Percy said. Every time he saw Skippy he started to miss Blackjack.

He left the fields of Mars and stopped by eagle training.

Kids were lined up waiting for the giant eagles to snatch them up. They flew until they passed a rock that looked like a dagger sticking out from the ground and then the eagles let them go. They had to drop without dying- simple. Piper was a few kids from her turn. She smiled when she saw him.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey. You doing okay?"

"Me? 'Course. About to drop from a giant eagle, but I'm cool." Piper said.

"You'll… you'll be, umm, okay." The girl behind Piper said. It was Quinn Hunter, the girl who'd given Annabeth the book on Rome.

"Thanks Quinn. Percy, you remember Quinn right?"

"Yes," he said. Quinn nodded and tried to not be there.

"They treating you okay?"

"Yeah. Joan's a little harsh because I'm Venus material, and I'm Greek. Supposedly the ultimate combo package for weak. All I need are crutches. But you know, whatever."

"Good for you," Percy said. "Want me to stick around?"

"If you want to see me die from eagle drop."

"Absolutely," Percy teased. Piper made a face as the kid in front of her took off. The first eagle had just dropped his kid and was coming back to pick her up. She took a deep breath.

"You can do it," Percy encouraged.

"I hope you're- oh my god, okay!" Piper said. The last part was because the claws plucked her off the ground. Percy followed her into the air worriedly, and when the eagle let go she did exactly what she was supposed to.

She positioned herself in mid-air, exactly right and when she hit the ground, turned the impact into a somersault and getting up perfectly. She didn't even stumble on her feet. A few legionnaires cheered, impressed and shocked, and Percy joined.

"She did it once," The Centurion who'd moved up next to Percy, Joan, grumbled. He obviously hadn't been meant to hear that- but he did. He probably should've shut up and let Piper prove Joan wrong herself, but he couldn't do that. She was right next to him and she was picking on generations of heroes that weren't.

"On her first time," Percy countered. Joan looked daggers at him.

"That doesn't make all Greek warriors good, and it doesn't make me respect any of you. You can't change that with your praetorship. If you disagree with that; you go do it yourself."

"I wish I could; but I can't fly. You should know; you were at the senate meeting yesterday morning, weren't you?" Joan turned red like a stoplight.

"Yes." She said sharply and coldly.

"There you go. Have fun." Percy said before leaving. Piper was getting a pat on the bat from a few kids, holding her helmet under her arm and smiling like 'holly Hephaestus I did it!'

Percy smiled. He'd have to congratulate her later.

Annabeth had given him the official rundown on all the new kids after he'd told her about Ella the harpy at lunch yesterday. They ended up _not _going back to eat right away-not until Reyna had nearly been smashed by the banner. They'd walked around the fort instead, talking. Percy had felt horrible; he'd missed eight months of her projects, her ideas, her problems, and generally _her. _But he was with her now, and that's all he could have wished for.

Supposedly Piper hadn't been the sword mistress champion of camp- but Annabeth sustained that she was getting better and working extremely hard for it. Annabeth said it was like Piper had a point to prove or something. Percy wasn't sure- half of his brain hadn't been listening and had just been thinking about how beautiful she looked right then, and was still in shock.

He wandered until he found the third cohort. They'd switched activities and they were conjugating Latin verbs- which sucked for Leo. He looked right through the paper.

"Give me some pointers- I don't speak Latin!" Leo whispered to him.

"Dig deep, you know it deep down." Percy said.

"I'm digging, but he's coming my way and I am not there yet!" Leo said, sounding a bit panicky. Maybe it was just Leo's spectacular ADHD.

"Add 'um', 'ux' or 'ilius' at the end of something that sounds French or English." Percy said. "It's how I passed sixth grade."

"Thanks," Leo said.

Percy didn't stick around for long before he went to go find Annabeth.

A Lares pointed him towards the sword arena and Percy grinned. They had no clue what was coming…

Percy slipped into the coliseum- whose backstage harboured corridors to allow gladiators to move around entrances without escaping seeing as most of them were prisoners, and pulley systems to lift animal cages to special doors and release animals into the arena. Percy hadn't really asked if they ever had animals in their tournaments. He assumed that no, and that the pulley system was just a part of the design, but he'd been surprised too many times in the last few days.

He made his way to the bleachers- where the first cohort lined the front row. Nobody noticed- they all looked over at the fight in the center, which Octavian followed. Well, of course they did notice, but they didn't care for long. He sat at the end of a row next to Annabeth.

"Who's winning?" He asked. She jumped.

"Gods, Seaweed brain, don't scare me." She whispered back.

"Too late," he said. She made a face at him.

"The smaller boy- Troy- is good but his opponent- Oliva- is smart and she'll have noticed that his right side isn't defended really well by now." Annabeth said.

Then just like Annabeth had said; Oliva stroke on Troy's right side and the kid went down. Octavian put his thumb down –no death- and Troy left the arena.

"Next," he called, looking up at the bleachers. He saw Percy and shot him a look as another kid jumped into the ring. The fight was 20 seconds tops; the kid was big but that seemed about it. Oliva managed to find a chink in the armour too. He was helped out of the arena.

"Next!"

Annabeth got up and jumped into the arena. She walked up to Oliva and Percy couldn't help but smile. Annabeth was bigger than Oliva, and so far all she'd counted on as far as Percy could tell was her sense of strategy. Annabeth had been watching that for two rounds. She was taller, most likely stronger, and older than Oliva; more experienced. If Annabeth could throw Oliva off with a Greek style…

Octavian gave them the go, and Oliva stroke first. Annabeth fought in a way that Percy had never seen her pull before; she fought like Frank, Hazel, Reyna, Dakota and everybody else he'd watched at Camp. She fought Roman- and she was good.

It was the longest fight Oliva had had, and she was soon on the ground.

Octavian put his thumb down, and called for the next kid.

It took half a second for the next kid to get out.

And the next.

And the next.

Percy smiled at all the different ways Octavian's eyebrows and mouth were raising and twisting.

Soon; all the kids had passed through Annabeth. She'd switched from Greek to Roman to a mix of the two- which confused her opponents.

"What was that?" Octavian asked Annabeth suddenly.

"Fighting," Annabeth said.

"We're doing _gladiator _fighting. That wasn't gladiator fighting."

"Actually Octavian, the _Hoplomachi_ were a type of gladiator. The name comes from the word 'hoplite' which is a Greek soldier; and the name comes from a similarity in fighting styles." Annabeth told him. Octavian frowned deeper.

"All right; you want to be smart about this?" Octavian drew his own sword. Percy tensed suddenly. Octavian wasn't centurion for no reason, and _he'd _watched Annabeth since she stepped into the ring, she was tired, and he'd probably been watching her like a security camera since she got to Camp. That idea bugged him for a reason. _Shut up, he hates her._

Annabeth got into an offensive position and Octavian stabbed at her chest, but Annabeth swept his sword away. She slashed at him, but he spun around to avoid the blade. Annabeth kept her arm in movement and swerved her arm to his Octavian in the side. He got her in the shoulder and Percy winced.

The sparring went on for a long, long time. The sun had _definitely _moved in the sky and the rest of the cohort had stopped cheering their Centurion on ages ago. They didn't look like _yeay Octavian! _anymore, it was more of a _Can I go home now? _Both Octavian and Annabeth looked about ready to pass out- but neither of them would.

Another cohort actually came in and sat down waiting for them to be done.

Their Centurion jumped into the rink and wolf-whistled. Only then did Percy see that it was the fifth cohort: Frank was in there.

"Octavian!" Frank called. "Rule of gladiator fighting- if both soldiers were too tired to continue, fight's over and it's a tie. Forgot that, maybe?"

Octavian relaxed his position, but Annabeth didn't. She kept her sword raised.

"Don't act so smug, Zhang." He said.

"You should be the one who's getting down. Years of telling us the _Graecus_ are unworthy and weak and now there's a truce called in your gladiator fight against one. I'm guessing she thought others before you too."

Octavian was about to reply something when Frank turned back.

"Fifth cohort- get in here, teams of two, 5 minute warm up and we get to the good stuff, let's go!" Frank called.

Both Octavian and Annabeth got a hand into climbing back into the stands. A few kids actually looked dead-impressed with Annabeth.

"You did good." Percy said when she crumbled down in her seat.

"Oh gods, how long was that?" She asked, slipping her helmet off her face. Her cheeks were bright red and sweat poured down her face.

"45 minutes straight," someone supplied. "And you fought before too."

"Thanks Skye," Annabeth told the girl. Octavian seemed to be in his own corner too. Then he got up.

"Pick yourself up Chase. We're already late."

"We'd have been fine if you'd have remembered the rules of gladiator fighting," Annabeth muttered between clenched jaws. Percy was pretty sure she'd known that, and that it was killing her now. But she did what he asked.

"I'll see you later," Percy said.

"At supper." Annabeth agreed. Percy watched as she, Skye and two other guys left the coliseum.

He was scared of walking in on Jason and Reyna (whatever Reyna said; Percy wasn't that stupid) so he wandered around the city.

That's when he heard barking and squawking and he saw Tyson, Mrs O'Leary and Ella running after each other.

Okay; what?

Percy jogged up and Ella circled down and landed in front of him.

"Dog- large dog- hellhound from Hades- eats heroes, not this one, nope, nope." She informed him. Maybe it was a greeting… Percy wasn't sure; the harpy confused him and being outsmarted by a bird somewhat bugged him even if he knew there had to be more to Ella than a harpy. Annabeth was right- how had Ella learnt to read?

"Hey Ella."

"Hello Friend." Ella said. "Tyson's brother, _a child of the three elder gods…"_

"Shall reach sixteen against all odds." Percy finished for her. Ella nodded anxiously like she was glad that Percy understood.

"Falling from ice the son of Neptune shall drown."

"Okay, could've lived without the second one," Percy grumbled. "Why's Tyson chasing Mrs O'Leary?"

"Chasing, Chase, Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, _the son of_ _Neptune shall drown_."

"Yeah, I get it, thanks." Percy said, not really in the mood about hearing about his own death. Again. "Why's Tyson running after Mrs O'Leary?"

"The Large dog stole Tyson's toy." Ella said.

"Tyson's toy?"

"Yes. Toys R Us, headquarters in Wayne New Jersey… Toy for Percy."

"A toy for me?" Percy asked. Ella nodded and took off. She swooped down and plucked something from Mrs O'Leary's mouth. She hovered around Tyson like a helicopter before dropping her loot in his hands.

"Thank you Ella." Tyson said. He whipped it with a corner of his faded shirt and saw Percy.

"Percy!" He said. Percy braced himself for a bear hug but it didn't happen- he still stumbled.

"Hey big guy," he said.

"Percy didn't leave again! Yeay! Annabeth not crying this morning!"

"You guys really don't- wait what?" Percy said. "What do you mean Annabeth's not crying?"

"Annabeth very sad when Percy gone. Thought Percy was dead. But Percy still here!"

"Yeay, right, guess that rules out the possibility of an Egyptian camp or whatnot." At the rate things were going- they could use another super-powerful godly army, but guess not. They were already having a lot of trouble uniting Greek and Rome together anyways. He wasn't ready to tackle Persia or whatever. "Hey- do you know what Ella's talking about?"

"No," Tyson said. "Tyson never understand. Only understand why."

"Why?"

"Ella nice. Nervous. Words make Ella not nervous."

"What is she nervous about?" Percy asked. Tyson shrugged.

"Words. Words make Ella nervous, but also make Ella not nervous."

"Okay… Sure." Percy said trying to figure that one out. Again; always outsmarted by a bird. Everywhere he went. Always.

"I have something for you."

"A toy?" Percy asked. Tyson frowned.

"Ella's words."

"Oh." Tyson understood. "Yes. Ta-dah!" He showed Percy what looked like a small iPad or something, except square and thicker. It hung on a keychain with a metal blue frame.

"Oh cool." Percy said. "What does it do?"

"Toy with pictures, Picture to burn, Taylor Swift…"

Percy looked back on the mini-keychain-iPad and saw three buttons.

"That one." Tyson said pointing to the top one. Percy pushed it and his eyes widened. The screen showed him a picture of his mom and him on her wedding day. She was smiling, and Percy had never seen her look prettier before. He wished she could've done that 8 years earlier.

"Percy's mom." Tyson said.

"Yeah…" Percy said in a daze. Tyson pushed the button under and it was a family picture with Paul. Then one of Percy –about 6 years old- at a beach that could only be Montauk. Then he saw a picture of Camp Half-Blood. Half-Blood hill, the view from the central green, cabin 3 with Connor and Travis in it…

"Hey- what are they doing in there?"

"Took pictures." Tyson said. Percy noted that he'd have to search their bunks if his stuff was missing when he got back to camp. He _would _get back to camp.

Grover, Rachel, Connor, Travis, Nico, a bunch of random pictures showing fingers in the lens and the ground meaning that the Stolls were wrestling for the camera (and just another proof demigods weren't made for technology), Annabeth Jake and Leo in the forge looking up from blueprints and smiling like 'okay, now go away so we can carry on'. Chiron, that kid from school Jon that he hung out with, the canoe lake (which made Percy smile), the beach, the fields where Katie was rolling her eyes at Travis who was close enough to put an arm around her, another picture of Travis being pushed into strawberries which meant that he'd tried…

"Everything's in here?" Percy asked shocked. Tyson nodded with a grin.

"Percy like?"

"I love it. Thanks big guy." Percy said giving Tyson a slap in the back. It made him feel homesick though. Seeing everything he'd missed, his mom, his friends who weren't here, his teacher… It only made him promise to himself that he _would _get back home soon.

Percy slipped it in his pocket and Tyson dragged Percy to show him the fort's forge- which he and Leo had sniffed out yesterday. It was small, and only two guys were working it. This thing only made weapons; no inventions, no thing-a-ma-bobbers and definitely no flying ships. Leo and Tyson must've been pretty disappointed; nothing like camp or under the sea. Then again, a forge was a forge.

They even let Tyson come with them when he asked. By now, Tyson was a master at a forge, and he had the two kids impressed in less than 5 minutes and 2 swords.

"Tyson works, Tyson strong, Tyson protect Ella…" The harpy blushed furiously and Tyson became the reddest Cyclops in the history of either Greece or Rome.

"Ella will go read now- words good- Good to You Marianna's Trench… Goodbye Percy, goodbye Tyson, Ella leave."

Percy figured that he should follow Ella's example and move on, especially when he unscripted the roman numerals on the forge's clock and saw the time.

"You good here?" He asked Tyson. Tyson nodded with a huge grin on his face.

"Kay, I've got to go, muster is anytime and I can't be late." Percy said turning around. He froze.

"Oh and Tyson?"

"Yes, brother?"

"She really is a pretty harpy- and she totally likes you." Tyson blushed again.

"Pretty, smart and nice."

"3 good things- go for it." Percy told him. Tyson was still thinking on that when Percy ran to the barracks for muster. Reyna and Jason were already there.

"There you are! Gods of Olympus, where were you? We can't trust either one of you on your own- I completely agree with Annabeth at this point." Reyna said.

Jason made a face at her. "You think having no memory and sitting in a school bus is fun? 'Cause it's not."

"Yeah, nor is being asleep… Somewhere for eight months." Percy said. Reyna rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to get Scipio. Jackson, make sure your armour's straight or Octavian will make sure we hear about it." She said before leaving.

"How were they? How were they doing?" Jason asked. "Everyone was okay?"

"I think so. Piper was pawning at the eagle drops, Annabeth got in a gladiator fight with Octavian-"

"You're kidding." Reyna said.

"I swear I'm not."

"How did it end?" Jason asked.

"Frank put an end to it because they were both pretty much exhausted. I don't know how she is right now but… I'm guessing –well I hope- she's alright. I think they all are. Well, Leo might have had a tough time with the Latin verbs…"

"Leo can't speak Latin." Jason said. "I've tried, but just… I think Seymour understood it better than he did."

"Who did?" Percy asked.

"The leopard. In the mess room." Jason said. The answer finally popped up in Percy's head. The stuffed leopard… That creep of a feline hanging in the… That Mr D dug out from somewhere- right. Jason must've seen it click in Percy's eyes because he said;

"Your memory's still coming in?"

"It's been two days; I wish Hera would make it hurry up." Percy said. "Yours took how long?"

"A week or two," Jason said. "Down to the tiny details like the _principia's _ceiling,or Vitellius' ancestry or whatever. Yours shouldn't take as long. I mean, you've got Annabeth here to remind you of whatever you'd forget."

"Yeah." Percy said. "It must've been tough. Having 8 months of knowing what you were missing and missing it."

Jason nodded.

"It was hard. Sometimes I'd just lie awake thinking about how many new kids were making the run from the Wolf House to here, or how bad Reyna was having it with Octavian and whatever." Jason said. "But at the same time, at least I didn't lose eight months of my life. That sucks."

"Yeah it does. Hera sucks period."

He grinned.

"Shouldn't be saying it, especially me, but yeah. On that one she does." Thunder boomed, but both of them ignored it.

"But what sucks even more for you is that we're not stopping at Camp Half-Blood before going to Greece and Rome. You won't see it for a while."

Percy nodded but took out the keychain.

"Tyson gave me this. I'll make-do, I guess. I got to hear my Mom on the answering machine."

"You should call again," Jason said. "When they're awake in New York. We keep _one _phone in the principia, so you could."

"Really?" Percy asked, suddenly excited.

"Yeah, for emergencies and things like that. I'll show you after muster. Reyna probably just didn't think of it."

"Didn't think of what?" She asked, shouldering Jason on Scipio now.

"Nothing," Jason said. "It's not important, really."

To Percy it was really important, and he started not being able to wait for them to leave as the legions started filling in.

It was just muster; nothing new, nothing interesting, and Percy's mind was elsewhere. Jason stood behind Reyna and Percy because, as usual, he didn't want to make it look like he was praetor. Percy has asked him several times if he wanted his job back or _something, _but Jason said no every time and Percy was starting to believe the guy was honest. In the meantime it wasn't worth it for him to re-join a cohort because the Argo II was leaving soon. And when the Argo II got back, Percy wasn't planning on keeping the name of praetor or 'roman'; Jason could be praetor again.

Piper stumbled over her foot in the fourth cohort, but she got up quickly and kept going. Leo was focusing on his feet. Percy didn't see Annabeth great from where he was but he hoped she was alright. Nobody collapsed in the first cohort's ranks and that was as good as Percy could think of.

When everyone started heading to the mess hall, Percy immediately went to see her.

"You doing okay?" He asked her. She raised her arms to try and pull off her helmet but winced. Percy took her helmet off for her and saw how pale she was, sweat trickling down her face.

"My arms are killing me." She said.

"Common," Percy said taking her to the first cohort's barracks. "Let's ditch you armour and get you to eat."

Annabeth explained her day as she put her armour away.

"So basically it started off with Octavian telling me that I was out of proper armour. Then I told him that this was proper Greek armour. So he hated me even more right there because I was right and he wasn't, and it was probably rubbing it in his face that I'm from the original group of demigods."

"Okay," Percy said thinking 'here we go'.

"Second, we had Latin lessons, and the Lares made it go to verbs and he kept cornering me for these things but I speak Latin just fine. Then there was the gladiator thing, which drained half of my energy. Then we did deathball with the ghosts, and they were nearly all after me because supposedly the whole Civil War was my fault. And then the day ended with eagle landings, and for some reason Octavian made me go first which meant that I went once more than the other kids. I landed awkward, my shoulder sort of cracked and he was all over me with a speech I mostly tuned out but sounded a bit like 'if you can't keep up you don't belong here'." Annabeth said.

"Is your shoulder okay?"

"I'm fine, Skye popped it back into place."

"But you're still half dead." Percy said.

"Yes, but I'm okay." Annabeth lied. "Common, let's go Seaweed brain, or they'll think we got lost."

"Maybe we _could _get lost?" Percy offered. Annabeth smiled.

"Just this once?"

"On purpose?"

"Alright," Annabeth said, taking his hand.

They should've gone to the mess hall but they wandered down to New Rome instead.

They saw down on the edge of the fountain with Cupid and watched. It was quieter now around; people were settled at home or at friends' for supper. A couple was throwing grapes at each other's open mouths, and the girl at the sidewalk café was bringing sandwiches and soups to tables. A big sister and her little brother were having a picnic on a spread out blanket, and a mother was yelling out her kids' names down the street until they ran home from a park.

"It seems so surreal," Annabeth said. "With all these families everywhere."

"It does." Percy said. "But it seems so good too."

"Yes," Annabeth said. "Maybe one day that'll happen."

"To us?"

"Amongst others," Annabeth said. "But yes; hopefully us." Percy kissed her.

"I hope so."

"So you survive the Argo II, okay?" Annabeth said.

"You're not coming?" Percy asked surprised.

"Well, I told Octavian on the first day here. I don't think this is about me."

"What about Ella's lines?" Percy asked.

"That I don't know." She said after hesitating. "But I'm not the only child of wisdom."

"You're the only child of Athena." Annabeth gave him a look.

"I've been wrestling with prophecies my whole life and a lot of it was about you, Seaweed brain. Can we just relax this one night before all Hades breaks loose? Times two? I shouldn't have brought it up anyways."

She brought her legs up on the fountain's basin and stretched them out slowly, trying not to wince.

"You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm soar; it'll go away by morning if Reyna takes Piper and me to the bath again. _That _was new."

"Tell me about it." Percy said. "Things are so different here."

Annabeth nodded and you could tell everything in her head was shifting and rearranging itself to fit. Annabeth's brain was like an octopus to Percy- it could do eight things at once and still get them all right and he just stood there going 'what?' Except he'd never kiss an octopus, and he couldn't go a day without kissing Annabeth again.

"Not necessarily bad," she said. "I mean, sure, some things I hate. Like the big opening Octavian has for his trickery and lies, or the fact he's got all the power over all these kids and he wraps them in lies like Santa wraps a present. But it's like camp that way. You've got the Clarisses, the Drews, and then the kids like you."

"Okay- what's his name," Percy joked. Annabeth hit his arm and laughed.

"Shut up, Seaweed brain. I'm talking about loyal, good, honest people who know right from wrong. And aren't necessarily the smartest." She kissed him. "You can be such an idiot sometimes, it blows my mind away."

"You blow my mind away." Annabeth smiled and her fingers touched his chest.

"You miss home?" She was pointing at the faded words that Percy hadn't been able to read before. Now he knew it was 'Camp Half-Blood'. His heart ached.

"Yeah," Percy said. "So bad."

"It's doing okay." Annabeth said. "Everyone misses you. I've talked to your mom a million times, and she misses you too."

"I called her. In Alaska. There was a payphone, and I had change…"

"I'm guessing she didn't pick up because it was night." Annabeth said. Percy nodded.

"She would have. And having that message on her phone is going to make her summer, Percy. We love you, and we've missed you." Percy kissed the top of her head and she leaned back on him. It was quiet- and for once quiet was good. Actually; scratch that, because when it was quiet things tended to then blow up in his face. Quiet with Annabeth was good.

Actually, right now, even if they were off on the most dangerous quest yet and time was counting down on it, as well as on a big prophecy that looked promising to count both of them into doomsday; anything with Annabeth was good.


	7. VII Percy

VII

Percy

When he saw Octavian's look, Percy suddenly got a bit scared. The way he looked at Annabeth made him suddenly afraid that he would hurt her or make her do triple the work or _something._

Then he saw Annabeth's look and he got afraid for Octavian.

She held her head high and she was wearing her bronze armour, her knife and a sword tied at the side. She held her head high and her grey eyes were so intense under her helmet… Even after 5 years of knowing her the look she followed Octavian with as he came down crept Percy out.

"You're kidding, right?" He told the praetors softly.

"_Q_ui_d es quod metuis_?" Annabeth said- in perfect Latin no less. That surprised Octavian. "Q_uod ego calcitrare vestrum podex?"_

"I'm not afraid." Octavian sustained, taking Annabeth's taunts seriously.'What are you afraid of? That I'll kick your butt?'

"Good, because she's in your cohort." Jason said. Octavian shot them all a dark look.

"Follow me," he said sharply before turning back to his legion, probably not expecting Annabeth to follow as quickly as she did. Percy bit the inside of his cheek. She was going to be surrounded by kids who were influenced by Octavian every day, kids who believed what he did. But if one person had to be out there to impress them… Percy picked Annabeth out of a crowd of a thousand.

The assembly broke and the cohorts went out to their own classes- eagle training, gladiator training, Latin lessons, paintball with ghosts, endurance building (basically hanging from a bar until your arms felt like pudding, or the activity was over), and a whole bunch of stuff.

He watched Annabeth follow the legionnaires, then Leo, and Piper. He couldn't tell which one was more afraid- their faces were plain.

"Piper's got Latin and she'll be fine because she speaks two languages with Latin roots, Leo's got endurance and his arms are strong because of forge work, and Annabeth's got endurance running, which she does for fun at camp anyways." Jason said, following the three with his eyes.

"They'll be fine," Percy said. "I trust them. So what about us? What the heck are we supposed to do?"

Reyna and Jason both smiled and Percy nearly regretted asking.

"Follow us," Jason said.

Percy figured it out soon enough; they were in the Fields of Mars, away from the kids who were practising falling from eagles without killing themselves. A medic stood there, reading a book until needed.

Reyna drew her _gladius_.

"Whenever," she called out to Percy. He drew Riptide and raised it just in time to block Reyna's sword. Reyna swept at his feet but he hooked one of them around her ankle, and she fell too, he pinned her to the ground, but before he got his sword to her throat she stabbed him in the side and pushed him off. She did that trick that every action movie star does- swinging her legs while she was on her back and getting to her feet.

Percy couldn't keep track of how he blocked, who stroke, it all zoomed past like the battle was on fast forward. Reyna wasn't a daughter of War just by title.

She blocked Percy's strike just in time, but Percy twisted her blade with the flat of his own sword and she dropped her sword. Percy swiped the hand that reached for the dagger and got it under her chin.

"Oh man…" Jason said.

"You have _got _to teach me that." Reyna told him. He lowered his sword. "That's the quickest I've been disarmed in, well, in 8 months."

"Easy once you get the hand of it," Percy said. "It's the first disarming technique I ever learnt."

"The last you need if it worked so well."

"Keep your options large," Reyna scolded. "Show, again." She picked up her own sword and had Percy show it over and over until she felt satisfied. Watching Reyna's dark eyes follow his hand's movement, he could easily see how she'd taught herself how to use weapons onboard a pirate ship.

"Come here, Grace," she said. Jason walked up to her, holding his sword at ready. Reyna lashed out first, and Jason held his ground okay against Reyna. They were obviously used to fighting each other. But in the end, Reyna managed to twist Jason's blade from her hand with the flat of hers and it clattered to the ground.

"That's it?" She asked.

"Yeah," Percy said. "Or at least it worked."

"I can bring a sword from your hand no problem Jackson," as fast as the wind she drew her dagger, and in a move that would've made her mother, the war goddess, proud, the sword fell from Percy's hand.

"I just want to know the strategy," Reyna said. "Or more importantly; the Greek strategy. That's something new to me, but it's basically your whole life for you."

Percy wasn't sure what to say to that- yeah, he'd already covered sword fighting classes in the arena last summer and winter, but teach Reyna? She already scared him, no need to teach her more moves, for gods' sake.

"Sure," he said.

"It's not that hard; if you've trained Roman you can switch to Greek and vice-versa. That's what Annabeth said." Jason told her.

"You fight Greek now?" Reyna asked Jason with a smile like 'I don't believe you'.

"No," Jason admitted, "Not naturally when you just charge me. But, you know, I guess I could."

"Then come here," Percy said. He felt excited. This was Thalia's little brother? So in 3, 2, 1…

He caught Jason's first stab with the flat of his sword and sent it back. Jason didn't flinch, and stabbed at his feet, which Percy blocked.

He had no idea how long the fight went, but the only focus point he had was Jason's sword and his feet and how he was placed, which way he'd swing…

"Okay, this is boring just watching you guys," Reyna called from the sidelines.

"We haven't been fighting that long," Jason said, slashing at Percy's feet with his sword. Percy blocked and tried to hit the blade from Jason's hand.

"You're just super impatient."

"Just disarm each other or something. Percy- Grace always moves the same way and he's very repetitive even if he knows more than that. Jason- he can't fight Roman yet."

Eventually Jason got Percy by surprise and Percy dropped his sword.

"Good job," he said offering Percy a hand to get up. Percy accepted.

"You fight with both, you know. You stab and you slash."

"You fight Greek, it rubs off." Jason said. Percy nodded, and Jason turned to Reyna.

"Okay, now I'm going to have to show this punk who's boss." Reyna said with a grin.

"You try," Jason smiled. Percy might not be a genius; but he realised that they hadn't had much time to talk alone since yesterday morning. Besides, there was something he felt like he had to do…

"I'll be back in a sec, I just want to check on everyone." Percy said. Reyna nodded.

"Probably a good idea."

"No offence to you two, but I don't trust everyone here."

"That's fine; _we_ don't trust everybody here either." Reyna said. "Take Scipio if you like."

"No thanks, I'm fine." Percy said. Every time he saw Skippy he started to miss Blackjack.

He left the fields of Mars and stopped by eagle training.

Kids were lined up waiting for the giant eagles to snatch them up. They flew until they passed a rock that looked like a dagger sticking out from the ground and then the eagles let them go. They had to drop without dying- simple. Piper was a few kids from her turn. She smiled when she saw him.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey. You doing okay?"

"Me? 'Course. About to drop from a giant eagle, but I'm cool." Piper said.

"You'll… you'll be, umm, okay." The girl behind Piper said. It was Quinn Hunter, the girl who'd given Annabeth the book on Rome.

"Thanks Quinn. Percy, you remember Quinn right?"

"Yes," he said. Quinn nodded and tried to not be there.

"They treating you okay?"

"Yeah. Joan's a little harsh because I'm Venus material, and I'm Greek. Supposedly the ultimate combo package for weak. All I need are crutches. But you know, whatever."

"Good for you," Percy said. "Want me to stick around?"

"If you want to see me die from eagle drop."

"Absolutely," Percy teased. Piper made a face as the kid in front of her took off. The first eagle had just dropped his kid and was coming back to pick her up. She took a deep breath.

"You can do it," Percy encouraged.

"I hope you're- oh my god, okay!" Piper said. The last part was because the claws plucked her off the ground. Percy followed her into the air worriedly, and when the eagle let go she did exactly what she was supposed to.

She positioned herself in mid-air, exactly right and when she hit the ground, turned the impact into a somersault and getting up perfectly. She didn't even stumble on her feet. A few legionnaires cheered, impressed and shocked, and Percy joined.

"She did it once," The Centurion who'd moved up next to Percy, Joan, grumbled. He obviously hadn't been meant to hear that- but he did. He probably should've shut up and let Piper prove Joan wrong herself, but he couldn't do that. She was right next to him and she was picking on generations of heroes that weren't.

"On her first time," Percy countered. Joan looked daggers at him.

"That doesn't make all Greek warriors good, and it doesn't make me respect any of you. You can't change that with your praetorship. If you disagree with that; you go do it yourself."

"I wish I could; but I can't fly. You should know; you were at the senate meeting yesterday morning, weren't you?" Joan turned red like a stoplight.

"Yes." She said sharply and coldly.

"There you go. Have fun." Percy said before leaving. Piper was getting a pat on the bat from a few kids, holding her helmet under her arm and smiling like 'holly Hephaestus I did it!'

Percy smiled. He'd have to congratulate her later.

Annabeth had given him the official rundown on all the new kids after he'd told her about Ella the harpy at lunch yesterday. They ended up _not _going back to eat right away-not until Reyna had nearly been smashed by the banner. They'd walked around the fort instead, talking. Percy had felt horrible; he'd missed eight months of her projects, her ideas, her problems, and generally _her. _But he was with her now, and that's all he could have wished for.

Supposedly Piper hadn't been the sword mistress champion of camp- but Annabeth sustained that she was getting better and working extremely hard for it. Annabeth said it was like Piper had a point to prove or something. Percy wasn't sure- half of his brain hadn't been listening and had just been thinking about how beautiful she looked right then, and was still in shock.

He wandered until he found the third cohort. They'd switched activities and they were conjugating Latin verbs- which sucked for Leo. He looked right through the paper.

"Give me some pointers- I don't speak Latin!" Leo whispered to him.

"Dig deep, you know it deep down." Percy said.

"I'm digging, but he's coming my way and I am not there yet!" Leo said, sounding a bit panicky. Maybe it was just Leo's spectacular ADHD.

"Add 'um', 'ux' or 'ilius' at the end of something that sounds French or English." Percy said. "It's how I passed sixth grade."

"Thanks," Leo said.

Percy didn't stick around for long before he went to go find Annabeth.

A Lares pointed him towards the sword arena and Percy grinned. They had no clue what was coming…

Percy slipped into the coliseum- whose backstage harboured corridors to allow gladiators to move around entrances without escaping seeing as most of them were prisoners, and pulley systems to lift animal cages to special doors and release animals into the arena. Percy hadn't really asked if they ever had animals in their tournaments. He assumed that no, and that the pulley system was just a part of the design, but he'd been surprised too many times in the last few days.

He made his way to the bleachers- where the first cohort lined the front row. Nobody noticed- they all looked over at the fight in the center, which Octavian followed. Well, of course they did notice, but they didn't care for long. He sat at the end of a row next to Annabeth.

"Who's winning?" He asked. She jumped.

"Gods, Seaweed brain, don't scare me." She whispered back.

"Too late," he said. She made a face at him.

"The smaller boy- Troy- is good but his opponent- Oliva- is smart and she'll have noticed that his right side isn't defended really well by now." Annabeth said.

Then just like Annabeth had said; Oliva stroke on Troy's right side and the kid went down. Octavian put his thumb down –no death- and Troy left the arena.

"Next," he called, looking up at the bleachers. He saw Percy and shot him a look as another kid jumped into the ring. The fight was 20 seconds tops; the kid was big but that seemed about it. Oliva managed to find a chink in the armour too. He was helped out of the arena.

"Next!"

Annabeth got up and jumped into the arena. She walked up to Oliva and Percy couldn't help but smile. Annabeth was bigger than Oliva, and so far all she'd counted on as far as Percy could tell was her sense of strategy. Annabeth had been watching that for two rounds. She was taller, most likely stronger, and older than Oliva; more experienced. If Annabeth could throw Oliva off with a Greek style…

Octavian gave them the go, and Oliva stroke first. Annabeth fought in a way that Percy had never seen her pull before; she fought like Frank, Hazel, Reyna, Dakota and everybody else he'd watched at Camp. She fought Roman- and she was good.

It was the longest fight Oliva had had, and she was soon on the ground.

Octavian put his thumb down, and called for the next kid.

It took half a second for the next kid to get out.

And the next.

And the next.

Percy smiled at all the different ways Octavian's eyebrows and mouth were raising and twisting.

Soon; all the kids had passed through Annabeth. She'd switched from Greek to Roman to a mix of the two- which confused her opponents.

"What was that?" Octavian asked Annabeth suddenly.

"Fighting," Annabeth said.

"We're doing _gladiator _fighting. That wasn't gladiator fighting."

"Actually Octavian, the _Hoplomachi_ were a type of gladiator. The name comes from the word 'hoplite' which is a Greek soldier; and the name comes from a similarity in fighting styles." Annabeth told him. Octavian frowned deeper.

"All right; you want to be smart about this?" Octavian drew his own sword. Percy tensed suddenly. Octavian wasn't centurion for no reason, and _he'd _watched Annabeth since she stepped into the ring, she was tired, and he'd probably been watching her like a security camera since she got to Camp. That idea bugged him for a reason. _Shut up, he hates her._

Annabeth got into an offensive position and Octavian stabbed at her chest, but Annabeth swept his sword away. She slashed at him, but he spun around to avoid the blade. Annabeth kept her arm in movement and swerved her arm to his Octavian in the side. He got her in the shoulder and Percy winced.

The sparring went on for a long, long time. The sun had _definitely _moved in the sky and the rest of the cohort had stopped cheering their Centurion on ages ago. They didn't look like _yeay Octavian! _anymore, it was more of a _Can I go home now? _Both Octavian and Annabeth looked about ready to pass out- but neither of them would.

Another cohort actually came in and sat down waiting for them to be done.

Their Centurion jumped into the rink and wolf-whistled. Only then did Percy see that it was the fifth cohort: Frank was in there.

"Octavian!" Frank called. "Rule of gladiator fighting- if both soldiers were too tired to continue, fight's over and it's a tie. Forgot that, maybe?"

Octavian relaxed his position, but Annabeth didn't. She kept her sword raised.

"Don't act so smug, Zhang." He said.

"You should be the one who's getting down. Years of telling us the _Graecus_ are unworthy and weak and now there's a truce called in your gladiator fight against one. I'm guessing she thought others before you too."

Octavian was about to reply something when Frank turned back.

"Fifth cohort- get in here, teams of two, 5 minute warm up and we get to the good stuff, let's go!" Frank called.

Both Octavian and Annabeth got a hand into climbing back into the stands. A few kids actually looked dead-impressed with Annabeth.

"You did good." Percy said when she crumbled down in her seat.

"Oh gods, how long was that?" She asked, slipping her helmet off her face. Her cheeks were bright red and sweat poured down her face.

"45 minutes straight," someone supplied. "And you fought before too."

"Thanks Skye," Annabeth told the girl. Octavian seemed to be in his own corner too. Then he got up.

"Pick yourself up Chase. We're already late."

"We'd have been fine if you'd have remembered the rules of gladiator fighting," Annabeth muttered between clenched jaws. Percy was pretty sure she'd known that, and that it was killing her now. But she did what he asked.

"I'll see you later," Percy said.

"At supper." Annabeth agreed. Percy watched as she, Skye and two other guys left the coliseum.

He was scared of walking in on Jason and Reyna (whatever Reyna said; Percy wasn't that stupid) so he wandered around the city.

That's when he heard barking and squawking and he saw Tyson, Mrs O'Leary and Ella running after each other.

Okay; what?

Percy jogged up and Ella circled down and landed in front of him.

"Dog- large dog- hellhound from Hades- eats heroes, not this one, nope, nope." She informed him. Maybe it was a greeting… Percy wasn't sure; the harpy confused him and being outsmarted by a bird somewhat bugged him even if he knew there had to be more to Ella than a harpy. Annabeth was right- how had Ella learnt to read?

"Hey Ella."

"Hello Friend." Ella said. "Tyson's brother, _a child of the three elder gods…"_

"Shall reach sixteen against all odds." Percy finished for her. Ella nodded anxiously like she was glad that Percy understood.

"Falling from ice the son of Neptune shall drown."

"Okay, could've lived without the second one," Percy grumbled. "Why's Tyson chasing Mrs O'Leary?"

"Chasing, Chase, Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, _the son of_ _Neptune shall drown_."

"Yeah, I get it, thanks." Percy said, not really in the mood about hearing about his own death. Again. "Why's Tyson running after Mrs O'Leary?"

"The Large dog stole Tyson's toy." Ella said.

"Tyson's toy?"

"Yes. Toys R Us, headquarters in Wayne New Jersey… Toy for Percy."

"A toy for me?" Percy asked. Ella nodded and took off. She swooped down and plucked something from Mrs O'Leary's mouth. She hovered around Tyson like a helicopter before dropping her loot in his hands.

"Thank you Ella." Tyson said. He whipped it with a corner of his faded shirt and saw Percy.

"Percy!" He said. Percy braced himself for a bear hug but it didn't happen- he still stumbled.

"Hey big guy," he said.

"Percy didn't leave again! Yeay! Annabeth not crying this morning!"

"You guys really don't- wait what?" Percy said. "What do you mean Annabeth's not crying?"

"Annabeth very sad when Percy gone. Thought Percy was dead. But Percy still here!"

"Yeay, right, guess that rules out the possibility of an Egyptian camp or whatnot." At the rate things were going- they could use another super-powerful godly army, but guess not. They were already having a lot of trouble uniting Greek and Rome together anyways. He wasn't ready to tackle Persia or whatever. "Hey- do you know what Ella's talking about?"

"No," Tyson said. "Tyson never understand. Only understand why."

"Why?"

"Ella nice. Nervous. Words make Ella not nervous."

"What is she nervous about?" Percy asked. Tyson shrugged.

"Words. Words make Ella nervous, but also make Ella not nervous."

"Okay… Sure." Percy said trying to figure that one out. Again; always outsmarted by a bird. Everywhere he went. Always.

"I have something for you."

"A toy?" Percy asked. Tyson frowned.

"Ella's words."

"Oh." Tyson understood. "Yes. Ta-dah!" He showed Percy what looked like a small iPad or something, except square and thicker. It hung on a keychain with a metal blue frame.

"Oh cool." Percy said. "What does it do?"

"Toy with pictures, Picture to burn, Taylor Swift…"

Percy looked back on the mini-keychain-iPad and saw three buttons.

"That one." Tyson said pointing to the top one. Percy pushed it and his eyes widened. The screen showed him a picture of his mom and him on her wedding day. She was smiling, and Percy had never seen her look prettier before. He wished she could've done that 8 years earlier.

"Percy's mom." Tyson said.

"Yeah…" Percy said in a daze. Tyson pushed the button under and it was a family picture with Paul. Then one of Percy –about 6 years old- at a beach that could only be Montauk. Then he saw a picture of Camp Half-Blood. Half-Blood hill, the view from the central green, cabin 3 with Connor and Travis in it…

"Hey- what are they doing in there?"

"Took pictures." Tyson said. Percy noted that he'd have to search their bunks if his stuff was missing when he got back to camp. He _would _get back to camp.

Grover, Rachel, Connor, Travis, Nico, a bunch of random pictures showing fingers in the lens and the ground meaning that the Stolls were wrestling for the camera (and just another proof demigods weren't made for technology), Annabeth Jake and Leo in the forge looking up from blueprints and smiling like 'okay, now go away so we can carry on'. Chiron, that kid from school Jon that he hung out with, the canoe lake (which made Percy smile), the beach, the fields where Katie was rolling her eyes at Travis who was close enough to put an arm around her, another picture of Travis being pushed into strawberries which meant that he'd tried…

"Everything's in here?" Percy asked shocked. Tyson nodded with a grin.

"Percy like?"

"I love it. Thanks big guy." Percy said giving Tyson a slap in the back. It made him feel homesick though. Seeing everything he'd missed, his mom, his friends who weren't here, his teacher… It only made him promise to himself that he _would _get back home soon.

Percy slipped it in his pocket and Tyson dragged Percy to show him the fort's forge- which he and Leo had sniffed out yesterday. It was small, and only two guys were working it. This thing only made weapons; no inventions, no thing-a-ma-bobbers and definitely no flying ships. Leo and Tyson must've been pretty disappointed; nothing like camp or under the sea. Then again, a forge was a forge.

They even let Tyson come with them when he asked. By now, Tyson was a master at a forge, and he had the two kids impressed in less than 5 minutes and 2 swords.

"Tyson works, Tyson strong, Tyson protect Ella…" The harpy blushed furiously and Tyson became the reddest Cyclops in the history of either Greece or Rome.

"Ella will go read now- words good- Good to You Marianna's Trench… Goodbye Percy, goodbye Tyson, Ella leave."

Percy figured that he should follow Ella's example and move on, especially when he unscripted the roman numerals on the forge's clock and saw the time.

"You good here?" He asked Tyson. Tyson nodded with a huge grin on his face.

"Kay, I've got to go, muster is anytime and I can't be late." Percy said turning around. He froze.

"Oh and Tyson?"

"Yes, brother?"

"She really is a pretty harpy- and she totally likes you." Tyson blushed again.

"Pretty, smart and nice."

"3 good things- go for it." Percy told him. Tyson was still thinking on that when Percy ran to the barracks for muster. Reyna and Jason were already there.

"There you are! Gods of Olympus, where were you? We can't trust either one of you on your own- I completely agree with Annabeth at this point." Reyna said.

Jason made a face at her. "You think having no memory and sitting in a school bus is fun? 'Cause it's not."

"Yeah, nor is being asleep… Somewhere for eight months." Percy said. Reyna rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to get Scipio. Jackson, make sure your armour's straight or Octavian will make sure we hear about it." She said before leaving.

"How were they? How were they doing?" Jason asked. "Everyone was okay?"

"I think so. Piper was pawning at the eagle drops, Annabeth got in a gladiator fight with Octavian-"

"You're kidding." Reyna said.

"I swear I'm not."

"How did it end?" Jason asked.

"Frank put an end to it because they were both pretty much exhausted. I don't know how she is right now but… I'm guessing –well I hope- she's alright. I think they all are. Well, Leo might have had a tough time with the Latin verbs…"

"Leo can't speak Latin." Jason said. "I've tried, but just… I think Seymour understood it better than he did."

"Who did?" Percy asked.

"The leopard. In the mess room." Jason said. The answer finally popped up in Percy's head. The stuffed leopard… That creep of a feline hanging in the… That Mr D dug out from somewhere- right. Jason must've seen it click in Percy's eyes because he said;

"Your memory's still coming in?"

"It's been two days; I wish Hera would make it hurry up." Percy said. "Yours took how long?"

"A week or two," Jason said. "Down to the tiny details like the _principia's _ceiling,or Vitellius' ancestry or whatever. Yours shouldn't take as long. I mean, you've got Annabeth here to remind you of whatever you'd forget."

"Yeah." Percy said. "It must've been tough. Having 8 months of knowing what you were missing and missing it."

Jason nodded.

"It was hard. Sometimes I'd just lie awake thinking about how many new kids were making the run from the Wolf House to here, or how bad Reyna was having it with Octavian and whatever." Jason said. "But at the same time, at least I didn't lose eight months of my life. That sucks."

"Yeah it does. Hera sucks period."

He grinned.

"Shouldn't be saying it, especially me, but yeah. On that one she does." Thunder boomed, but both of them ignored it.

"But what sucks even more for you is that we're not stopping at Camp Half-Blood before going to Greece and Rome. You won't see it for a while."

Percy nodded but took out the keychain.

"Tyson gave me this. I'll make-do, I guess. I got to hear my Mom on the answering machine."

"You should call again," Jason said. "When they're awake in New York. We keep _one _phone in the principia, so you could."

"Really?" Percy asked, suddenly excited.

"Yeah, for emergencies and things like that. I'll show you after muster. Reyna probably just didn't think of it."

"Didn't think of what?" She asked, shouldering Jason on Scipio now.

"Nothing," Jason said. "It's not important, really."

To Percy it was really important, and he started not being able to wait for them to leave as the legions started filling in.

It was just muster; nothing new, nothing interesting, and Percy's mind was elsewhere. Jason stood behind Reyna and Percy because, as usual, he didn't want to make it look like he was praetor. Percy has asked him several times if he wanted his job back or _something, _but Jason said no every time and Percy was starting to believe the guy was honest. In the meantime it wasn't worth it for him to re-join a cohort because the Argo II was leaving soon. And when the Argo II got back, Percy wasn't planning on keeping the name of praetor or 'roman'; Jason could be praetor again.

Piper stumbled over her foot in the fourth cohort, but she got up quickly and kept going. Leo was focusing on his feet. Percy didn't see Annabeth great from where he was but he hoped she was alright. Nobody collapsed in the first cohort's ranks and that was as good as Percy could think of.

When everyone started heading to the mess hall, Percy immediately went to see her.

"You doing okay?" He asked her. She raised her arms to try and pull off her helmet but winced. Percy took her helmet off for her and saw how pale she was, sweat trickling down her face.

"My arms are killing me." She said.

"Common," Percy said taking her to the first cohort's barracks. "Let's ditch you armour and get you to eat."

Annabeth explained her day as she put her armour away.

"So basically it started off with Octavian telling me that I was out of proper armour. Then I told him that this was proper Greek armour. So he hated me even more right there because I was right and he wasn't, and it was probably rubbing it in his face that I'm from the original group of demigods."

"Okay," Percy said thinking 'here we go'.

"Second, we had Latin lessons, and the Lares made it go to verbs and he kept cornering me for these things but I speak Latin just fine. Then there was the gladiator thing, which drained half of my energy. Then we did deathball with the ghosts, and they were nearly all after me because supposedly the whole Civil War was my fault. And then the day ended with eagle landings, and for some reason Octavian made me go first which meant that I went once more than the other kids. I landed awkward, my shoulder sort of cracked and he was all over me with a speech I mostly tuned out but sounded a bit like 'if you can't keep up you don't belong here'." Annabeth said.

"Is your shoulder okay?"

"I'm fine, Skye popped it back into place."

"But you're still half dead." Percy said.

"Yes, but I'm okay." Annabeth lied. "Common, let's go Seaweed brain, or they'll think we got lost."

"Maybe we _could _get lost?" Percy offered. Annabeth smiled.

"Just this once?"

"On purpose?"

"Alright," Annabeth said, taking his hand.

They should've gone to the mess hall but they wandered down to New Rome instead.

They saw down on the edge of the fountain with Cupid and watched. It was quieter now around; people were settled at home or at friends' for supper. A couple was throwing grapes at each other's open mouths, and the girl at the sidewalk café was bringing sandwiches and soups to tables. A big sister and her little brother were having a picnic on a spread out blanket, and a mother was yelling out her kids' names down the street until they ran home from a park.

"It seems so surreal," Annabeth said. "With all these families everywhere."

"It does." Percy said. "But it seems so good too."

"Yes," Annabeth said. "Maybe one day that'll happen."

"To us?"

"Amongst others," Annabeth said. "But yes; hopefully us." Percy kissed her.

"I hope so."

"So you survive the Argo II, okay?" Annabeth said.

"You're not coming?" Percy asked surprised.

"Well, I told Octavian on the first day here. I don't think this is about me."

"What about Ella's lines?" Percy asked.

"That I don't know." She said after hesitating. "But I'm not the only child of wisdom."

"You're the only child of Athena." Annabeth gave him a look.

"I've been wrestling with prophecies my whole life and a lot of it was about you, Seaweed brain. Can we just relax this one night before all Hades breaks loose? Times two? I shouldn't have brought it up anyways."

She brought her legs up on the fountain's basin and stretched them out slowly, trying not to wince.

"You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm soar; it'll go away by morning if Reyna takes Piper and me to the bath again. _That _was new."

"Tell me about it." Percy said. "Things are so different here."

Annabeth nodded and you could tell everything in her head was shifting and rearranging itself to fit. Annabeth's brain was like an octopus to Percy- it could do eight things at once and still get them all right and he just stood there going 'what?' Except he'd never kiss an octopus, and he couldn't go a day without kissing Annabeth again.

"Not necessarily bad," she said. "I mean, sure, some things I hate. Like the big opening Octavian has for his trickery and lies, or the fact he's got all the power over all these kids and he wraps them in lies like Santa wraps a present. But it's like camp that way. You've got the Clarisses, the Drews, and then the kids like you."

"Okay- what's his name," Percy joked. Annabeth hit his arm and laughed.

"Shut up, Seaweed brain. I'm talking about loyal, good, honest people who know right from wrong. And aren't necessarily the smartest." She kissed him. "You can be such an idiot sometimes, it blows my mind away."

"You blow my mind away." Annabeth smiled and her fingers touched his chest.

"You miss home?" She was pointing at the faded words that Percy hadn't been able to read before. Now he knew it was 'Camp Half-Blood'. His heart ached.

"Yeah," Percy said. "So bad."

"It's doing okay." Annabeth said. "Everyone misses you. I've talked to your mom a million times, and she misses you too."

"I called her. In Alaska. There was a payphone, and I had change…"

"I'm guessing she didn't pick up because it was night." Annabeth said. Percy nodded.

"She would have. And having that message on her phone is going to make her summer, Percy. We love you, and we've missed you." Percy kissed the top of her head and she leaned back on him. It was quiet- and for once quiet was good. Actually; scratch that, because when it was quiet things tended to then blow up in his face. Quiet with Annabeth was good.

Actually, right now, even if they were off on the most dangerous quest yet and time was counting down on it, as well as on a big prophecy that looked promising to count both of them into doomsday; anything with Annabeth was good.


	8. VIII Quinn

VIII

Quinn

Quinn thought names were incredibly ironic.

Percy Jackson was named after Perseus, the gorgon slayer, and that was the monster he'd churned up in the Tiber the day he got there. Jason Grace was named after the Jason, the one who'd first sailed on a ship called the Argo. 'Annabeth' was an anagram of 'Athena' with an added 'b' and 'n', who was her mother. 'McLean' –Piper's surname- was the actor for the main protagonist in 'The King of Sparta' which was a story that happened in Greece.

Quinn was short for Quintina, which meant '5' and there were always five problems in Quinn's life. And one of them, for today, was the small group with all the ironic names.

Sure; Quinn had felt drawn to the small group when she'd seen them all. There was no way she was Greek, but she didn't feel scared or repulsed like Joan said they all should. Did that make her a bad soldier?

The daughter of Athena, Annabeth Chase, intrigued Quinn the most. Maybe because they were sisters, but she didn't think so. Quinn had other sisters and they never had that effect. The startling grey eyes were strategizing and Quinn kept thinking that she _had _to be a part of that.

_No,_ she chided herself. _You're buying into what the voices say. You can't start doing that._

Maybe that was why Quinn had gone up to see Annabeth and given her the book that first day. So she could see the Greek group closer, and really access strength. Of course, she'd made a fool of herself. She hadn't doubted that she'd be tongue-tied the second everyone looked at her, but she got what she wanted.

Or maybe it was because she remembered being new to scary places, and she didn't want scary places to be scary forever.

When the praetors had announced that a Greek demigod would be in each cohort, Quinn had gotten excited. The fourth cohort was very anti-Greek thanks to Joan, it would only be logical for the praetors to send a Greek half-blood there, in the hopes of changing that. She thought that maybe Annabeth would come, maybe she could be kind, and then maybe she'd get to know the strangers and figure things out.

They'd sent Annabeth to the first cohort, but it made sense to Quinn because the strongest fighter should fight the strongest opposition- which was without a doubt Octavian. The girl called Piper McLean –like Tristan McLean- came in. Quinn was a lot shier around her than she imagined herself being around Annabeth, but she did her best.

Piper even sat with her at supper that night with her best friend Cate, Josh, and Jedediah.

Quinn was very unroman-like in one big aspect; she was a social stub. Parties? Run and hide. Oral presentations or talking to people? Worth moving to New-Zeeland to avoid. Socialising in general? That required a 3 hour reading therapy to get over. She didn't hop from table to table like everybody else, and that was fine because everyone _came_ to see Cate.

She was a daughter of Trivia- a pretty Arabic girl with the brightest smile Quinn had ever seen on a person. That spread to her personality; Cate Amjad was everyone's friend.

Cate had been friends with a guy named Josh forever. He didn't believe he could get hurt until he actually did- maybe because his father was a son of Hermes (Martin Ayano)- and he always had his head in the clouds- maybe because his mother was a nebulae. He had almond shaped black eyes and out-of control black hair.

Finally Jedediah Adams… Quinn had no idea where to start; but it didn't matter where she would, her heart would go on a little tap dance anyways. He had thick, chestnut coloured shaggy hair and deep green eyes. He could be chatty person, but at the same time he was quiet. He talked but he never said anything. His father was a minor god, Virtus, of bravery and military prowess. Today he was wearing a brown military jacket with an American flag on the sleeve, and baggy jeans- how he managed to look good in anything beat Quinn, but he did. He often looked up at Quinn; they locked eyes, and looked away.

Quinn wasn't stupid just because she was shy; she _knew _that she and Jedediah flirted a lot and she _knew _like heck that she liked Jedediah. But she always looked back down. She had to.

They made a pretty unlikely quartet, but Quinn didn't mind, she loved it. She loved having people she knew would always let her sit next to them. She'd always been at the mercy of numbers when it came to finding a place in the cafeteria, or group projects before she got to Camp nearly a year ago. She hoped Piper didn't feel like that in New Rome, but Quinn could tell probably not.

Cate and Piper took off a conversation in no time about… cereal? Quinn didn't know, but she'd zoned out of the world and into her thoughts.

Back before Camp…

It had just been the May of last year –the 24th- but it seemed so long ago to Quinn. Really; Camp had been with her all her life. She might not have known about the war banners or legion, but she'd always known there was something more deep down. It might be because of the voices.

No; Quinn had counted herself as crazy because of those- even if she thought she was perfectly fine, she answered riddles perfectly, and aced tests. It had frustrated her beyond relief.

Really what must've set Quinn off was her mother.

Quinn had never officially met her mother, but if you asked her what the goddess looked like, how she stood, or how she made her words; Quinn could tell you perfectly.

She was about 6 years old. It was dark outside, and Quinn was lying in bed listening to voices. But they weren't the voices, it sounded like Dad and a… a woman? That was weird; there never were any women around the house if it weren't for Grandma.

She tip-toed out of bed and peeked through the railings of the staircase, perched on the highest stair. She saw the woman- she had dark black hair braided down her back and she wore jeans and a white blouse. She stood straight and there was something hanging on her waist. A… A sword? A short sword, but Quinn was sure that it was a sword. She wasn't losing her mind.

"She's not cursed!" Dad said. "Quinn isn't cursed she's perfect!"

"I'm not throwing the word as an insult, Michael." The woman said. "On the contrary, Quinn is brilliant. She will be so, so great. But I am saying it as a very serious and literal warning."

Dad sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Okay what… What kind of curse? I know there are a million, but..."

"That I can't say," the woman told Dad. "I'm not entirely sure what would happen if it was broken, and thus is the origin, isn't it?"

"I suppose." Dad said.

"All I can tell you is that it will burden her, and that the consequences will surely be terrible."

"How… How do I protect her, Minerva?" Dad asked. The woman that must be Minerva seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"Some secrets are heavier known than silent, and it is a warning only to be carried on later. Are you sure you would like to know?"

"Knowledge has hurt me, but never wounded." Dad said. Minerva smiled a bit.

"Wise words," she said.

"I heard them from a wise woman."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere."

"Who said this was flattery?" Dad replied.

"If you insist… Quinn must never marry."

"Never marry?"

"Never." Minerva said it like the opposite would be disastrous, an early 2012.

"She's only 6 years old, though."

"12 years from the legal age," Minerva said. "For you, 12 years is nothing, but much can happen in 12 years. Bad things will stir in under 5 if my calculations are correct. And I did say that Quinn's curse was not an immediate threat."

"You did," Dad said. "Although knowing in advance won't hurt. It is easier to prevent then to heal, no?"

"Here; yes." Minerva said. "But it would all depend on the injury. I would be ready to lose my life in battle and never be healed than to be careful and make the world collapse. Perhaps it's just me. But just… Be careful with her, Michael. Her future is unclear, but it is rocky and uneven for sure."

Dad took a deep breath.

"Look, when you gave her to me I figured that I could probably manage, but now… Now you're telling me that there's a curse? How do I tell her when she needs to know? Do I send her off to the camp early? How do I do this? Nobody knows about… Nobody knows about _Quintina, _they only know about _Quinn_, as a way of saying it. Not my brother –especially not my brother-, not my mother, not my best friend, no one. What if something happens and I can't tell her? Who will?"

Minerva put a hand on his shoulder.

"You do it like you're doing it now. Quinn is a happy, loved child. She's being raised right, you're teaching her the right things and I love you for it. Don't be afraid," she said. "And if you need help… Don't think of me as gone. Think of me as out of sight. But when you want me gone, I will respect your wish."

The woman had turned towards the backdoor and as she turned she caught Quinn's eye. She was very pretty with grey eyes twice as bright as Quinn's and also very threatening. Quinn somehow _knew _she'd already seen them, once. Long ago, maybe. But she had seen them. Leaning over her when she was very, very little. Maybe a baby…

For how long had the woman known Quinn was listening? Maybe since she'd tip-toed from her room. The woman didn't call her out, and she didn't stop to say something else. She looked at Quinn, and dad walked her out of the house.

Quinn has run back to bed and she pretended to sleep when Dad came to check on her, and close her light. Quinn hadn't even whimpered when it became dark.

When she'd gotten to Camp when she was 12, Dad hadn't had a chance to tell her about the curse- the wolves had picked her up as she walked home from school. They'd taken her all the way from Thurso to San Francisco. It had taken days of walking- after all, Thurso Quebec was on the East side, and Quinn hadn't taken long to stop trying to relax her aching muscles. The she-wolf Lupa had been more aware of her limits then the wolves. She'd fixed Quinn up, and pushed her limits again before sending Quinn to San Francisco.

Quinn had found out that Minerva was the goddess of wisdom and intelligence, and it had made a lot of sense to Quinn. Dad had always wanted to go to college, but money was already scarce because there were 3 boys in the family and his dad had left his mother months before Quinn's dad was even born. That was why Quinn's grandmother had given Dad her maiden name and not her father's, because she didn't believe on giving her son the name of a man who'd never seen him and never would.

He'd saved up for university, but when his eldest brother Tyrone had gotten sick with stomach cancer, dad had tapped into his university savings for treatment far from home, and then for the funeral when he didn't make it.

He'd worked more and was about to start taking night classes when his brother had become an alcoholic and he'd had to help there too. As thanks he'd cut himself for the family, or Dad had cut him out when Quinn was born, or something had happened and nobody was quite sure what had happened to Gabe.

So in the end, Dad lost both his brothers and whatever money he had to go to university. But he wanted to learn very badly. Instead of going to college like he wanted to, he ended up carrying on the family shop, 'Sweet's Bakery', something he'd never, ever wanted to do.

He'd learnt from books, from watching game shows like Jeopardy and remembering the answers, listening to people, and reading. A lot. He was already smart. Quinn had always thought that that was how he'd met Minerva- a man who wanted to learn really badly and the goddess of wisdom. It was a no brainer to Quinn. But when she'd been told who Minerva was, Quinn had known right away that it was the woman who'd come to warn Dad about her curse.

"Are you thinking algebra or quantum physics?" Someone asked. Quinn blinked once and realised Jedediah had spoken. She probably blushed because she wasn't obvious enough as it was.

"History," Quinn said.

"Awe, close."

"Not even." Quinn said. He shrugged.

"It's from a book," he said. "I don't understand it. Your super-brain can. See- basically the same thing." Quinn laughed.

"History is a study, algebra is math."

"I'll remember that," Jedediah promised.

Quinn had never cared about the curse before. For some reason, the guys at school had always run after Quinn, but she could always outrun them. Literally. Left in the dust, egos busted; they generally left her alone. But Jedediah wasn't running at her, and even if he was, Quinn wasn't sure she'd run either.

That was the first time she minded the curse; she didn't want to run away from Jedediah, but eventually she'd have to. She wouldn't let herself get close to anyone like that; not in that way. And that was exactly where she and Jedediah were going; Quinn knew it. When you shut off the part of her that remembered the curse and Minerva's warning; she didn't mind. She wished she could have that part surgically removed.

"Personally, I think they're both as confusing. Less than science though." Jedediah said.

"It's not that hard when you get it explained right."

"So explain it right," Jedediah said.

"Umm… Err… The principle of Archimedes?"

"Whoa- I'm talking, like, sixth grade stuff here." Jedediah said.

"You're not in sixth grade!" Quinn said. "What, a-about, umm… The human body?"

"I know all I need to know about the human body. You get stabbed, you bleed. You bleed too much or your organs and junk get damaged, you die."

"You're being very one-minded about this." Quinn said raking her brains. Jedediah laughed and Quinn felt herself smile too.

"Okay; what about the parts of a cell? Or the particular theory?"

"Let's go with the one that sounds easier to spell," Jedediah said.

"Parts of a cell then. Well, it depends on the cell, but most cells have 3 big parts; the cell membrane- also called the plasma membrane, the nucleus, and mitochondria."

"Sound that out for me will you?" Jedediah asked.

"Mi-to-chon-di-a."

Jedediah repeated.

"Exactly. The nucleus is in the middle and it has the hereditary material of the cell. Like its DNA, and it controls the growth and reproduction of the cell. The plasma membrane is a kind of envelope, it surround the cell. And the mitochondria is the part of the cell that feeds it- it breaks down food like your stomach does, and takes them in, like your mouth. There can be thousands of them in a cell, it depends how much energy the cell needs to work. Like, a muscle cell which helps you move and needs energy will have more than a nerve cell, that passes signals to the brain." She said. "Was that too complicated?"

"Membrane- envelope, nucleus- DNA, mitochondria- food." Jedediah repeated cautiously. "Was that it?"

"Exactly!" Quinn said.

"Then I guess it's not that hard."

"See? You're not- not- you're not bad at it. You're smart." Quinn wished she could swallow back the compliment. No. "May-maybe the particular theo-theory c-could work."

"The name scares me." Jedediah said. Quinn laughed.

"Never had it explained better before, though." He said. Quinn blushed. Thankfully Cate bailed her.

"Oh my gosh! I forgot to go feed the cat!" She said.

"You have a cat?" Piper asked.

"I have a cat!" Cate said. "Common Quinn!"

She grabbed Quinn by the arm and dragged her out of the mess hall, narrowly avoiding a plate of Meat Lover's pizza that was zooming towards some guys from the second cohort.

"You really can't even just, you know, _date_ a guy?" Cate asked as they scrambled down the stairs. Quinn sighed.

"I don't think so. It's driving me nuts! Jedediah is… I really like him Cate."

"Yeah; I know, he knows, Josh knows, Piper's probably already figured it out. Huzzah! Now we've got to figure out what to do about this." Cate said.

"You can't tell him!" Quinn said alarmed. "If he finds out it'll scare him off. I… I at least want him, you know, talking to me."

"His dad's the god of freaking bravery. I don't think a teeny-weeny curse is scaring material, and let's be honest, neither do you."

Quinn sighed.

"You're right."

"Of course I am. Now; we're looking for a small Calico male… He's missing an ear and the other isn't doing so good…"

"Where did you get a cat?" Quinn asked.

"I can make weird things out of mushrooms and spit," Cate said.

Quinn looked around. It was getting dark.

Soon it was curfew and Quinn got shivers. Soon…

"You cold?" Cate asked.

"No," Quinn said. "I'm okay. I just had a mental image of you, spit and mushrooms."

Cate laughed.

"It's not pretty," she said. "Not as pretty as, say, Jedediah."

"Stop teasing me Cate."

"If I would do that, I wouldn't be your best friend, now would I?"

"I wouldn't be looking for your fungus feline if I weren't your best friend; but I'm not teasing about your crush on the ambassador of Pluto."

"Hey- he's bad boy, I like that. Anyways, you're right; fungus cat first, complicated but cute boys later. Come." Cate said dragging Quinn down the Via Principalis.


	9. IX Hazel, Frank

IX

Hazel

Hazel had told Frank she had to go feed Arion and he'd left her alone, but she felt bad about lying to him.

Really all that she needed was information so maybe, just maybe, she'd sleep better at night. Because so far, she was basically starring at the top of her bunk and playing conversations and memories in her head like those CD's that Frank had told her about. Since the day she'd seen a ghost.

Of course _she _shouldn't be talking. But she at least knew and admitted she was from another time. Leo on the other hand… He didn't act like it. He was perfectly at ease with all the weird slang and clothes and technology. Nothing was new, nothing surprised him (except for the unicorns)… It was killing Hazel. Nearly literally.

Whenever she started thinking about New Orleans too much she got the image of Thanatos hovering in the air in front of her. She took it as a message. You got a free pass out; you can come back easier than the rest. And Hazel wasn't ready to do that. At least not yet.

Then she'd think about one of the crazy gadgets she'd already seen once and Thanatos shivered and disappeared.

That had scared her more than Hazel was willing to admit to her friends, even Frank. Scratch that; especially Frank. She felt so fragile now… Even more when she was around Leo- it made her want to cry when she remembered the birthday cupcake, or ridding, or any of the other things that Sammy had said or done. She'd stayed in the shadows, which people were used to from her anyways, and watched- which was a typical Hazel behaviour. She thought that now that everybody knew her secret she wouldn't have to, but she'd done it. Just so she didn't look anti-Greek.

She shook the thoughts from her head and waited outside the shop in New Rome without thinking of how much it looked like Queen Marie's shop.

The door was opened by Cate Amjad.

"Hello, welcome to the shop, please wait a moment!" She said brightly.

Cate slammed the door and Hazel let her head drop to the side. Children of Trivia were always doing a million things, so when they were operating they were jittery and excited or in a rush to supervise things before they exploded or bubbled too much, and they usually didn't speak in complete sentences- which made their confusing subject even more confusing.

The door was opened by one of Cate's sisters- a tall, dark girl with a mane of black frizz and beautiful eyes like onyx.

"Sorry, Cate's not allowed to take calls. Come in, welcome to our shop, my name's Louisanne."

"Hazel." She said walking into the shop.

"Oh I know." Louisanne said closing the door behind Hazel. "So, what can I do for you?"

The shop was lined with floor to ceiling shelving, going from books done in leather or silk, to vials, to boxes, to plants (mostly dead or getting there). There was a small counter, and the place looked like some twisted apothecary. A trap door opened up to whoever climbed some unsteady looking wooden stairs, and there were footsteps above.

"So, what can I do for you?" Louisanne said, taking a seat on the counter.

"I was wondering if you or any of your siblings were necromancers." Hazel said. Louisanne tilted her head to the other side.

"Necromancers?"

"Yes."

Louisanne hesitated for a second.

"What for, Hazel? You're already here."

"It's not to bring someone back!" Hazel said. "I just… I need to know if I'm the only one who was brought back and stayed."

"Are you looking for someone? Maybe your mother." Louisanne said sympathetically.

"Not my mother," Hazel said. "But… But yes, I am. I think he might be back."

"You said 'he', so I already like it. Well, none of us are necromancers by profession, but what's that saying 'live and learn'? I'm sure it applies to Ancient witchcrafts. Common, let's snoop around the land of the dead, I'll get my gloves."

Frank

He might have been lying low lately, but Frank was lying wide awake.

He hadn't slept well since he got back from the quest and had done a pretty good imitation of the brain dead for that night. He didn't know why. He wasn't scared of the Greek half-bloods or anything. Annabeth was deadly smart- and when Frank said deadly, he was literal. This girl had 20 ways of killing him, all in stock in the massif brain. And Piper? Piper was cool. She looked like she'd worked really hard, and she still was. Leo? Leo confused Frank.

He was still puzzled about whether or not this kid was Sammy from New Orleans 70 years ago or not. And if Leo _[i]was[/i]_ Sammy, what did that mean with him and Hazel? He liked Hazel a lot, and he thought he liked her too, but… He didn't know exactly what Sammy had meant to Hazel. Something he could match up to? Not at all? He was so confused… And Hazel was being so much more secretive and in the shadows now, Frank felt even [i]more[/i] awkward talking to her. Like he was interrupting her.

But when he wasn't thinking about Hazel or New Orleans or things that had happened 70 years ago, Leo seemed okay too- he was hilarious for sure, and he seemed nice enough. Frank had found out that his mom had died too.

"When?" Frank had asked before he could stop himself.

"I was 9," Leo hesitated. Frank nodded.

"Mine died earlier this year." Frank said. Leo smiled sympathetically, although it looked like it hurt.

"It was sort of ironic; she died in war, and my dad being Mars…"

"You want to hear irony? Workshop fire." Leo said uneasy.

_Fire… _Ouch.

That was another thing about Leo; he seemed twitchy about fire too, like Frank. Whenever someone brought it up, whenever someone used 'flame' or 'spark' in a sentence… He reminded Frank of a turtle that hid back in his shelves. If his mom had died in a fire, that was probably why.

Right now he was thinking about Annabeth.

Okay; that didn't come out right.

He was thinking about Annabeth's part to play. What she'd said during the senate meeting on the first day _'I don't see greatness for myself in this prophecy'_. She'd been honest about that, Frank could tell. So why was she here? To see Percy? Frank had a feeling that that wasn't completely it, and Ella's prophecy lines haunted him about that. The Mark of Athena- what other child of_ Athena_ was there in the legion, or New Rome right now? Nadda.

Another prophecy line that haunted Frank; _The_ _earth shall take what the seven want._ That scared Frank, because there was a lot that he wanted. He wanted his Mom, he wanted his Grandmother, he wanted Hazel to stay safe… What if… It was crazy talk; but what if Gaia had them? What if he could get them back from Gaia? And if he'd have to confront Gaia to lull her back to sleep anyways… It was along the way of his duty. Right?

No. He was going to help _close _the doors of death. Not take back people already there. And that… That counted Hazel. If Hazel was going to go back; Frank knew he couldn't be able to stop that.

That was what Frank really wanted. For Hazel not to have to think only in the moment. It seemed like a sad life to Frank if she could only think of right now, tomorrow, in a week…

And what about Leo? If he was Sammy, would he go back to Elysium or something too? Would he and Hazel have their happily ever after down there? Frank didn't know, but the idea bugged him.

When morning came, Frank hadn't slept a wink. He regretted it when Dakota came to show him the schedule; gladiator training, obstacle courses, _armatura- _fancy Latin term for weapon training, marching, swimming… It looked like all the highly-physical drills were on the one day where Frank would rather sit down and listen to the Lares lecture them about the roots of suffixes and prefixes. And they had war games that night… Oh, man this was going to be a long day.

But Frank pulled through.

Leo was the only Greek half-blood already in the hall. He was staring at a breakfast burrito looking really down.

"Hey," Frank said sitting down in front of him. It took about 5 seconds for a plate of poached eggs and bacon to drop down from the sky in front of Frank.

"Hey," Leo said.

"You okay?"

"Nope."

"Why? What's wrong?" Frank asked.

"Dreams. Threatening. Dark prophecies. The usual Styx. But you know, all good, all good. You? You look tired."

"Pretty much the same," Frank admitted. "The gods should stop trying to help us by sending us info and warnings through dream-mail. Next thing you know, we're going to be so informed we're going to collapse in the middle of a fight."

Leo laughed.

"At least we'll all die smart," he said. "We could be all 'we know to beware the one in red' before dying. But nah, it wasn't the gods. Little not-so-secret secret; I get the VIP treatment with Gaia harassing me."

"Oh." Frank said. "Like, creepy earth-mother Gaia?"

"Yup," Leo said. "She's been onto me since I'm little. Why my mom died. Well, partially…" Leo looked super uneasy right then, so Frank decided to change subjects. He was raking his brain when Annabeth sat down next to them, with eyes like fire.

"You okay?" Leo asked scooting away from the fuming Annabeth by precaution. Frank felt like hiding behind the seats.

"I'm fine." She said. "Where are the praetors?"

"Which one?"

"Any one." Annabeth said sounding annoyed, like this should be something Frank knew. Sure sign she was mad.

"They're not here yet, we're sort of early. Why, what's wrong?" Frank asked Annabeth. She appeared to be biting the insides of her cheek when she took out her knife from the pouch at her side. Frank's eyes sprawled. He'd heard the story about Kronos, that knife and the kid called Luke Castellan. He knew how much it meant by Annabeth and it looked like an extension of her arm when she fought with it.

The tip was melted down to a stub, and the words 'Graecus weapon' were engraved in bronze.

"Whoa." Frank said. Annabeth took a deep breath to try and cool off. Leo was frowning too.

"They did that to it?"

"Who else?" Annabeth said.

"Here, pass." Leo said. He took the knife and assessed damage as Annabeth went on.

"I don't know who, but it was someone who hates the Greeks-"

"-Octavian." Leo said.

"Who can get away with a lot-"

"-Octavian." Frank said.

"Who's in the first cohort-"

"-Octavian." Leo told her.

"And who will do whatever it takes."

"Octavian." Frank repeated. Annabeth sighed.

"I'm trying to keep options open, here. He's not alone."

"Hey guys, didn't think you'd be here so- Annabeth?" Percy stopped mid-sentence. "What's wrong?"

Leo held up her knife. Percy frowned and his jaw dropped. He sat down next to Annabeth and put an arm around her comfortingly. She let head drop on his shoulder and for a second she looked more lost than angry.

"That's horrible! Who..?"

"Octavian." Frank said.

"It might not be," Annabeth said. "Logically…

"It's Octavian." Frank said. "Who else?" It made Frank mad to see Annabeth's knife broken- he'd talked to Annabeth and she didn't deserve that to her weapon of choice.

"I could fix it for you," Leo said. "I could fill in the engraving, sharpen the tip… You'd lose only a bit of its length." Annabeth sighed.

"Thank you Leo. I knew you could do it." He said. Piper popped up behind Annabeth.

"Annabeth, are you..?"

"Her knife got vandalised, she'll be okay."

Piper's jaw dropped.

"That's horrible! That's not right! Do you want me to find out who- can't just…"

"Piper, don't make a big deal, you'll get in trouble."

"Well, I won't," Percy said. He took Annabeth's knife from my table, got up.

"No, Percy, don't you-" she tried to grab his arm but he left, and walked towards the part of the mess hall where the first cohort usually sat. Frank had a bad feeling about this and went for damage control.

Percy dropped the knife in front of Octavian, interrupting a fit of laughter from a joke that appealed to the cohort 1 crowd.

_Why did the Graecus cross the road?_

_Because they're like the chicken._

Frank could _totally _see that happening and he wasn't sure whether it made him mad or disgusted.

"Explain," Percy said. Octavian looked up at him.

"How can I help you, Jackson?"

"Explain this."

"Well, it appears to be a knife."

"It's a Greek knife, made of our metal, celestial bronze. It belongs to Annabeth, and it was vandalised sometime last night. Explain why one of _your _soldiers, one of your A++ soldiers, was out and about in the middle of the night vandalising weaponry." Octavian considered the question thoughtfully like he actually cared to explain this to Percy. It infuriated Frank, so he couldn't imagine what it was like for Percy who seemed to be keeping his cool as much as somebody who'd marched over to Octavian with a broken knife could.

"An interesting question- I'll inquire."

"No," Percy said. "I don't want you to inquire. I want you to make sure whoever did this is punished. You can be ordered to scrub the stables with a toothbrush or sewn into a bag of weasels and thrown into the Little Tiber for being late; what's the punishment for vandalising weapons? If she'd have drawn that knife in front of a monster or in a fight without realising it was damaged, she could've been killed! Killed, Octavian; like Gwen in the war games."

Frank was thinking 'da-yum he's hitting the sensitive spots!'

Octavian's eyes became angry at that.

"Are you hinting at something, Jackson?"

"Yes," Percy said. "Annabeth's a soldier. She's been training since she's seven years old. She's fought in the Titan War and pieced some important things back in Manhattan. She's smart, she's strong, as clever as you are, and skilled- three things you should respect. More importantly; she's under your care as much as these guys. Start treating her right because this, Octavian, is a kind of racism and nobody takes your 'I'm not anti-Greek' bull."

"You're calling me racist now?" Octavian said innocently, as if scanning a text for the highlights. He sounded more professional and mighty- Octavian didn't get hot-headed or angry, see. (Bull. Styx.)

"I'm calling you out for it. What you talk Styx about- that's my heritage. It's where I'm from, where I have a family, a past and a future, what I fight for, and where I was taught right from wrong. And I can find the wrong in what you're doing like this, Octavian," Percy said snapping his fingers. "So snap out of the illusions you have about us. Talk to Annabeth like she's worth it, she is. Talk to Leo and Piper like they've been on quests the day after they've gotten claimed and built a boat, heck, talk to me like I'm a serious person maybe once. The real enemy is Gaia. Forget about us, work on her."

Frank thought that Octavian was going to slap Percy or something like that. A real good movie-slap with the sound effects. But they just stared at each other and Frank was pretty sure that whoever lost the starring contest lost the discussion.

Actually; a lot of people probably thought that, because a lot of people were looking at Percy, Octavian and Frank now. Frank half expecting someone to start a round of 'oohh…'

"Percy, come on." Frank said. "Leo needs the knife to actually fix it." Percy didn't break away from Octavian's glare. He picked up the knife and walked back to where Annabeth and Leo were sitting, and where Jason, Reyna and Hazel had now joined to. Hazel looked at Frank with question marks in her gold eyes.

"I really hate walking in here and finding out that the Styx has already started before the most important meal of the day," Reyna said.


	10. X Quinn, Jason

X

Quinn

The only thing that everyone talked about for the rest of the day seemed to be the one thing Quinn didn't want to hear about.

She didn't want to hear about how whinny the Greeks were. In Quinn's opinion, Percy talking to Octavian was a lot better than what she'd have liked to tell Octavian. If she could talk to people without totally screwing up the English language, that is.

And he'd made several good points- Annabeth could have gotten hurt really badly if she wouldn't have realised the knife was damaged, and Octavian was being unfair and discriminating against her. Just like Joan was to Piper.

Piper had lost her footing on an obstacle course- the kind of thing the army trained its people with. She'd been climbing up the side of two planks of wood with foot holes, leaning on each other like a tent. She'd slipped on one of the foot holes and fallen to the ground- which made no sense to Quinn. What Piper didn't have in strength, she made up with in agility. She'd managed to hold on with the smallest foot holes on the aerial paths, so this?

"If this is too hard on you McLean, you can just go whine back home East!" Joan barked. Quinn had never liked Joan- she always held her head so high up it looked tilted back, which was yet another proof that her ego was ridiculously enlarged. She might have been beautiful if her nose didn't scrunch up like you smelled bad. No, Joan would always be ugly on the inside…

"I didn't fall, that foot hole was slippery!" Piper argued back. "Touch it," she challenged. "There's something on it, I swear on the river Styx!"

Joan rolled her eyes.

"I've got enough of your lies, daughter of Venus."

"Aphrodite." Piper snapped.

"_And _of your attitude. So suck it up, and sit this one out."

Piper obviously didn't want to sit this one out, but what could she do? Quinn tried to give her a smile as she sat down on the sidelines, arms crossed making it very clear that she was not impressed. Quinn bit back a smile- she knew Piper wasn't full of attitude by nature. She was only doing it to bug the snot out of Joan. Quinn wished _she _was that defiant.

Quinn's turn came to run the obstacle course. She dove into the tunnel, army crawled under a rooftop of criss-crossed ropes, climbed the rope to tiny foot pedestals, leaped from one to the next do fast there was not time for hesitation, and paced herself on the thin ramp that led to the ground. She then hiked up one side of the climbing planks, and as she scampered down the next paused for a second.

"HUNTER! Don't slow down!" Joan yelled. But Quinn had to. The tip of her fingers touched one of the foot holes really quickly and she climbed back down at full speed, yet again.

She slid under the climbing planks, into a type of cage with ropes as floor. She slid down the slide out from the top of that thing and somersaulted all the way to the finish line.

"5 push-ups for slowing down!" Joan ordered. "What was that?"

Quinn only did them with one hand because the one who'd touched the foot hole couldn't touch the ground- she didn't want to lose the slimy substance they'd picked up. She had to figure out what had been put on the foot hole to slow down the soldiers.

More specifically; to slow down the Greeks.

Jason

"Look, I'm not saying that anything Octavian does is right, but you really can't get him mad." Jason tried to reason with Percy.

"Yeah, I know, but he ticks me off." Percy said.

"He ticks all of us off! Point is; don't mess with the guy." Reyna said.

"Reyna; what if he was making fun of where _you're _from, of where your friends are from, your dad, your family, your freaking heritage and traditions?" Percy asked.

"I'd punch him in the jaw," Reyna said. "But that's because I'm Roman, and he's not going to attack that. You… We're trying to damage control here. Feel free to help us out."

It looked so much easier for Reyna to have no tact as a public speaker. She just said things as they played out in her head, she didn't try to not offend anybody or any of that. You wanted her opinion, gods of Olympus, you asked for it.

"Rey, he's the only reason Leo, Piper and Annabeth are still alive here. It's not like he screwed everything up."

"He's only come close." Reyna argued back.

Percy sighed.

"I'm sorry, _again._ I just miss home and hearing trash-talk and insults about it isn't really helpful."

"I get that," Jason said. "A bit. But Octavian's trying to get a reaction out of you, man. Do you want to give him what he wants?"

"Don't you guys think you've lectured me enough?"

"Yes, but she doesn't think so." Jason said, pointing to Reyna.

"I don't care how the Fontus you apologise," Reyna said, "Octavian will remember that. It's just something else he'll add on his list of 'why I hate the Graecus'."

"I don't regret it. Rome might be about shutting your mouth and listening to your superiors or whoever has power, but that's not what I was taught, or at least not what I remember being taught. I was taught right, wrong, and going for the right." Percy said.

"Percy, you swore on your life that this would go okay." Reyna said. "If you die… Then we're full-blast screwed because I don't think anybody from that ship or from Camp Half-Blood is going to tolerate that. It's going to play out like such; somebody mad will do something stupid, that will give Octavian his excuse to tell Romans how weak praetor I was for not listening to the foreshadowing of this. Everyone will raise Octavian on a shield, he's praetor along with me, and as we all know considering you make fun of me for it, his public blabbermouth skills are far superior than mine. He'll rally at least his cohort although the fourth will probably go up as well with no problem, then Piper, Leo _and_ Annabeth will be killed. He'll march to Camp Half-Blood and attack there instead of here, they're not going to be ready for a fight because they won't have a clue about what's happening here, they won't be getting ready when they see the legion approach because they won't know its doomsday, and there's nothing anybody will be able to do about it because Rome works that way." She said in her most cynical worst-case-scenario yet.

"I know Reyna! I know doomsday is basically around the corner! But would it have been better to have let him keep doing what he's doing?"

"Reyna- he's got a point. Octavian probably just lost a lot of respect because Percy was right." Jason tried to add in helpfully.

"I'm trying to keep a sleeping serpent sleeping here, that's the best way to handle him until our priorities get sorted." Reyna said.

"We know, Reyna, but…"

"You have no idea what he's been like for the last few months. How much rallying he's done- he'd got the second and fourth cohort wrapped around his finger if he decides to flip on us." Reyna said, suddenly angry.

"And I'm sorry about that," Jason said feeling the familiar pang of guilt. Reyna'd never voiced that out before, but he'd known. He could read her as much as she read him. "But this is going to turn out okay."

"If it works for you, then go. I guess I'll just have to rip more straw dummies apart. And find more blond wigs to put on them. And I'm going to start hitting targets right now if we don't go, and Grace, you're blond, so I suggest we get moving."


	11. XI Frank, Annabeth

x

Frank

War games were going to be epic. And for the first time in a long time, the fifth cohort was included in the planning. He and Dakota spoke with legion four (Joan and a girl named Nelly), and three (Brady Johnson and some dude named Fiske).  
>The big excitement in the fifth cohort was that Jason was back. Seeing as Percy was praetor, Jason was technically legionnaire even if he wasn't training. Tonight he was playing, and everyone was pretty excited. He was being overwhelmed with questions as the cohort waited for instructions.<br>Piper and Leo were being included in the planning.  
>"We're on offence again, right?" Brady asked.<br>"Yes," Joan said. "I say we go to basic plan. We send the fifth cohort in to clear the way for the rest of us."  
>"You mean as you watch us get creamed?" Frank said. "No; we're not doing that again, and now they know what Hazel can do. They'll watch out more inside, they'll expected it."<br>"Can I say something?" Piper asked.  
>"Sure," Nelly said kindly.<br>"Why don't you use a Greek strategy?" She asked.  
>"A Greek strategy?" Joan repeated.<br>"Yes. As in a strategy with which the Greeks took cities…"  
>"I know what it means!" She said flaring up. Frank would never admitted but he loved when Piper did that. Joan wasn't Frank's favourite person –sister or not- and so seeing her aggravated was like a mini personal victory.<br>"Why do you think this'd work?" Brady asked.  
>"Because they won't see it coming," Piper said. "Octavian's in there, he won't even think of it coming. The only person who would possibly have a clue of how to react would have to be Annabeth, and there's no way that he'd listen to her."<br>"She's got a point," Brady said.  
>Joan crossed her arms stubbornly.<br>"What do you suggest?" She asked.  
>"That depends," Piper said. "Is there a time limit? Is the fort stone?"<br>"No, it's too hard to take down and rebuild- which is why Roman forts weren't built out of stone unless the location was definite for decades. The engineers have this new material that's solid as stone but lightweight." Joan said.  
>She looked really unimpressed with all of this, but she was alone. Brady had never hated Leo, Dakota had made friends with Percy (or was too hung over to hate on anybody), Nelly was just sweet, and Fiske just… Didn't have a reason to hate anybody. Everyone seemed onboard with what Piper was saying.<br>"Then the rams wouldn't work… What do you usually do?"  
>"They send the fifth in to try and clear the way while they watch us get creamed." Frank said. Piper frowned.<br>"Okay. One Greek technique was a siege tower."  
>"A siege tower?"<br>"Yeah," Piper said. "And they had a dozen other weapons involved. Ever heard of Greek fire?"  
>Frank liked it already.<p>

Annabeth

She felt a storm coming. She had a feeling these war games weren't games, and they weren't capture-the-flag rivalries. Not even Hunter vs. Camper rivalry.  
>Octavian had brought her along to the strategy meeting with the second cohort- but Annabeth was pretty sure that it was only because he had no choice.<br>"Jackson isn't playing, which means we can use the water cannons without a threat," Maya- the main centurion for the second cohort said.  
>What had he done with the water cannons? Backed up the whole system?<br>"-And they won't use underground tunnels a second time because they know we'll see it coming." Octavian said. "They'll put Zhang's powers to use, but we can't prepare for that. We'll have to make-do on the battlefield. But defence is going to have to be strong on the door. If they use him as a ram as well as Hannibal…"  
>Octavian was actually thinking things through. Annabeth was impressed.<br>"Or we could have people with barrels of boiling arrows on the wall above," someone suggested. "Neither of them would like that, and it would put both Zhang and the elephant out of battle." Maya said.  
><em>Yeah, for a week!<em> Annabeth thought.  
>Maya was okay from what Annabeth heard (okay if you weren't Greek), but she was 4 feet five of pure violence.<br>As she listened to them talk and negotiate positions, Annabeth started thinking about how the defence was great except for one pretty important factor.  
>"What if they adopt a Greek siege technique?" She blurted.<br>"What do you mean?" Octavian asked harshly.  
>"The defence is great, the fort would be unbreakable if you were fighting only Roman. But there are two people with Greek ideas over there, and judging from what I hear, you wouldn't be able to defend against that."<br>Octavian crinkled his nose.  
>"Two people. In a Roman camp. You're not home anymore, people won't fight like it. Our defence is fine," Octavian said. His pride was swelling up and blocking some options, here. Annabeth hoped that Piper and Leo were having better luck.<p>

Frank

The plan was intense, violent, and actually likely to work. Frank felt nearly as confident as he had during the last War Games with Hazel and Percy.  
>He talked to Hazel as they made their way to the fields of Mars after eating supper early.<br>"You okay?"  
>"Yes," she said. "This'll work." Hazel said.<br>"You look worried. I'm sure you'll do great." He said.  
>"Thanks but that's not it."<br>"What is it?" He asked. Hazel looked at the ground and he knew what it was before she even spoke. _Sammy._  
>"Nothing, it'll be okay." She said. Frank wasn't sure that anything was going to be okay, but he was going to take this one battle at a time.<br>Starting with tonight.  
>Leo was talking to Brady already. Piper was looking over at the fort already, as if wondering how to breach it.<br>"Where's Joan?" Frank asked.  
>"Pouting." Piper said. "Something about not going to let herself get commanded by Greeks."<br>"Go back and tell her that she'd have to show up and play her part then. Make sure you mention that Zhang said it."  
>"Don't worry about that, I'm not going to throw myself under the bus for saying that." Piper said with a smile as she headed back to the pavilion. Frank smiled too and turned to Leo.<br>"You got it?"  
>"'Course," Leo said. He pulled out a thick rope with a grappling hook tied at the end. The grappling hook was made out of some Imperial gold swords that hadn't survived the giant's attack.<br>"So _that's_ a ship sinker?" Hazel asked.  
>"Tonight it's a fort sinker," Leo said. "They used to hook these under the hull of a ship. An ox would pull and the boat would tip out of the water. Then the ropes were cut and the boat just smashed back into the water. That said; we have a layer of bronze platting on the Argo II's hull."<br>"Cool," Frank said. He really was excited. At the other end of the rope there were two harnesses that looked humongous. Hazel ran her fingers under the leather.  
>"I can't believe you made that in less than a day." She said with wonder. Leo shrugged.<br>"I've been building a boat for the last 8 months, power building's a second nature now, and Jacky and Martin helped." He said.  
>"So where are we going to have the horse pull?" Brady asked. Leo took a second harnass out and gave it to Hazel.<br>"Clip one end on Arion's saddle, clip the other on the rope when you're ready to pull. If you're needed somewhere else on the battlefield, you just unclip."  
>"Clip, unclip- got it."<br>"And the soldiers are going to have to pull with their hands." Leo said. "There are a couple of hand holds like in a subway from the spare leather, but..."  
>"It's great Leo," Frank said. "This thing is going to kick butt." <p>


	12. XII Percy, Frank, Annabeth, Jason

XII

Percy

Percy was slightly upset about missing the war games. He rather Jason ref but Jason had thrown him under the bus for this, insisting that he was praetor and that there was a first time for everything. Percy was pretty sure that was largely in part because he wanted to play too. Reyna had promised that being ref was okay though (as helpful as that was).

Usually Jason would just fly over the battlefield to watch, but Percy –as everyone had noticed- couldn't fly. He'd be on the ground. The plan was for him to take Arion, but Hazel had pulled back saying that on second thought, they needed the horse. Percy wasn't sure whether he should be worried or not, but either way, the horse seemed happy about it. Which made Percy definitely worried.

Everyone was assembling, cohorts making last minute 'don't forget to' and consultations. The people in the fort were packing up a bunch of nasties for whoever tried to breach. Percy saw Annabeth helping a kid move a barrel of… something- and he was pretty sure she didn't like it. He'd ask later. Or see.

"You ready?" Reyna asked. He jumped.

"Me? Yeah."

"Where's your Pegasi?"

"My Pegasi? I thought I was doing this on foot." Reyna rolled her eyes.

"Annabeth must've wanted to keep it a surprise, but he showed up last night and-"

_[I]Yo Boss![/i]_

Percy turned around at the speed of lightning and stared at the only horse to ever call him boss twice.

"Blackjack!" Percy said. Blackjack nuzzled Percy on the shoulder although it felt more like he was being pushed around by the horse.

_[i]Where you been? You just disappear for months and then come out asking a favour and make me fly over here and stay in their disgusting stables with the loudmouth egomaniac? Not cool boss, not cool.[/i]_

"Don't call me Boss!"

_[i]Sure thing Boss.[/i]_

"Blackjack! I didn't even ask you to be here!"

"You realise you're arguing with a horse." Reyna told him.

"I talk to horses. Poseidon created them and all."

"Oh. I don't know much about children of Neptune. Most of what I heard describes them as rash, overly powerful and shady characters who shouldn't be trusted. They're half right."

"Funny. How did he get here?"

"Beats me. I walked out of my house yesterday and he was standing there looking at me all expectantly. I think Scipio brought him, but that's weird because he never leaves the stables. Anyways, I talked to Annabeth about it and she said it was yours."

"Yeah, this is my horse alright." Percy said. "Guess I can ref from up high now."

"Well get on your horse and let's get this started. I'm excited to see how this'll happen."

"Then it'll probably be a blood bath."

"You know, I'm not entirely violent." Reyna said. She mounted Skippy.

"I know, but you're half right." She scowled at him.

"I'll share my visions of war on you later," she said, and told Skippy something in Latin and took off.

_[i]So watcha killing today boss?[/i_

]

"Hopefully stereotypes." Percy said getting on Blackjack's back for the first time in months. "Common Blackjack, ready to just watch a battle for once?"

_[i]Watch? Geez boss- what happened to you?_ [/i]

Frank

The fifth cohort eyed him like he'd grown a second head- spare Jason, and of course Hazel who just nodded him on whenever he felt like he should stop talking to all these soldiers.

"Everyone's good with this?" Frank asked.

"That's insane!" Santana told him.

"Which is why it'll work," Frank promised. "They won't have a clue what him them."

"I still don't have a clue on how that boat sinker's going to work." Gerry said.

"Then just do your job, and it'll work. You'll see." Frank said. They didn't look too sure. "Fifth on three; 1, 2, 3-"

"FIFTH!" The cohort yelled before breaking ranks.

Frank stalked over to Brady, Joan, Leo and Piper, Hazel and Jason following him.

"They've got this." Frank said.

"Good." Joan said. "This is stupid enough as it is, human error would just make it worst."

"It's worked a million times in ancient times, Joan." Piper said so coldly, Frank thought she'd get hit.

Reyna blew her whistle and the sound echoed across the fields.

"I want a fair game!" She yelled from her Pegasus. Reyna had a strong voice that carried across the battlefield like wind on the tundra. "Nobody's getting stabbed from behind this time- I'm looking at the first cohort, here. All weapons and powers allowed- on my whistle…"

She blew in her whistle and she and Percy circled higher as the fourth, third and fifth cohort charged together for the first time in Frank's time in the legion.

Jason popped up in the air like the top of a champagne bottle, grabbing Hazel by the wrist on his way up, and darted for the fort like an arrow.

The three charging cohorts weren't enough to distract the defence- which Frank had expected. They were probably on order to watch for the three demigods with the flashiest right now- so he, Hazel and Jason.

The defenders saw him and aimed a ballista, but Jason somersaulted to avoid it, holding onto Hazel so she followed the wind's movement and not just his (she really didn't look comfortable in the air), and dropped two things attached to his dagger pouch- two envelopes of Greek fire that only Annabeth or anybody who'd have listened to her would recognise.

He spun around as the explosions fired, and so did the panic.

Stage one- done.

Jason wasn't the distraction, his package was.

Jason dropped Hazel before going back to join ranks and she landed it perfectly, holding up the ship striker, coiled around her arm. She unwrapped it in a sharp movement, and threw it under the fort as a tunnel for it dug itself as she raised her hand. The grappling hook led the rope through the tunnel.

At the exact same moment a barrel's content was tipped over the fort's top and Hazel screamed in pain once the liquid touched. She fell to the ground and a few other soldiers who'd been trying to take the fort door's down with a ram –a tree with a ram's head and horn carving at one end, mounted on wheels- backed away in total panic.

It had to be oil, acid or hot water, Frank thought.

He was about to run in (even if he shouldn't) and help, but Hazel got up on her own- but it looked shaky from where Frank had been told to watch. She threw the ship sinker again, tugged on it for a second and this time she yelled the code in the air. The Ancient Greek word for 'pull'- guaranteed surprise for the first and second.

Annabeth

She heard Hazel yell as clear as she heard Octavian shouting orders inside the fort- refill the barrels, go harsher with the water cannons, action the ballistas at certain parts of the flock of soldiers…

'Pull'.

From what she'd seen when she'd snuck a glance as she brought some ammo for the ballistas… No way… Had they actually adapted so it worked on..?

The whole fort started shaking.

"They're going to tip it…" She whispered to herself. Oh that was smart… The Greeks had never been good at sieges- their techniques were either adapted from Persian ones, or required big siege towers that New Rome didn't have. The best techniques were either flushing out the army before attacking the city, or cutting off all its resources until they surrendered- neither of which would work now.

Or at least their sieges of [i]forts[/i] wasn't good.

Boats on the other hand…

"Octavian!" She shouted to get his attention. People could get seriously hurt if this went wrong…

No, he'd ignore her. She had to find Maya.

Frank

Bobby rode Hannibal away from the door to the harnesses that Hazel threw back. She hadn't lasted long enough to throw it far out, and now Leo and a guy in his cohort were pulling far enough pulling.

His hands were running at double speed as he and a few others worked to get the harness around Hannibal, tossing the ropes up to Bobby. Frank looked over his shoulder one last time. Hazel was being pulled out of the way by a few soldiers, to the Medics. A lot of kids were getting out because of whatever dropped out of the barrels- and as if that weren't enough the kids up there were going at them with the water cannons after.

_[i]We need to go faster,[/i] _Frank rushed himself. [i]_We're losing our people.[/i] _

He turned into an elephant- the exact same size as Hannibal, and ten seconds later he felt people tying the harness up to him. He couldn't look back, but he heard some intense sounds and panic from both sides.

"GO!" Brady yelled at him. "Now Frank!"

"Forwards Hannibal!" Bobby yelled.

"RETREAT!" The centurions at the fort yelled, when they got the message from those at the back, working with the harness. "RETREAT!"

The elephants didn't stop moving to check that everyone was clear- they all knew where they had to be, and they all sure as Pluto weren't going to stick around. He felt people grab the harness and pull as well. He heard the sounds of Arion being clipped on- but by who he wasn't sure. Suddenly there was a break through and he heard the sound of intense panic and then…

BAM!

Frank immediately returned to human form- the leather harness straps dropping all around him- and spun around fast.

Holly Styx- they had actually tipped a fort.

Everyone was in shock for a second. Surprisingly Dakota was the first one who yelled at them to charge.

The lines assembled straight away and marched onto the fort. The first and second cohorts quickly made lines. It looked like they'd all either evacuated or found themselves a safe spot when they'd figured out what was happening. Suddenly Frank thought of something. [i]_Annabeth.[/i] _She must have understood what the ship sinker was- no Roman would know, they weren't sailors.

In hand-to-hand combat, the legions were pretty equal. The first cohort had more soldiers in it, and 3, 4 and 5 had lost more soldiers due to the oil barrels, so any difference in numbers was cancelled out. Now it was all up to skill.

Frank turned himself into an animal he'd already thought- a gryphon. He felt his limbs twist and change, his bones even. He let out a huge screech and three kids suddenly backed off.

Frank took off into flight and he tried to target the best fighters- if he could carry them off like the gryphons had done to Percy… He wouldn't hurt anybody, but it could make the world of a difference.

He immediately zeroed in on Annabeth.

The first time that Frank had ever played war games with Percy he'd thought that [i]_that[/i] _guy was trouble. Annabeth was just as bad. She hadn't been trained to fight with others, she'd been focused on hand-to-hand combat. The opposite of most of the people here- and 10 years, tactic, and inborn skill was making her a huge threat right now. Nobody knew exactly how to deal with the Greek style except for Leo, Jason and Piper- all three of which were currently busy, and still probably not equal.

So Frank swooped down, and careful to aim for a part of Annabeth's shoulders that was fully covered by her armour he grabbed her in his talons. She let out a cry of surprise and then she saw who it was. Then she laughed.

"Nice try Zhang," she said. And then she twisted herself like a worm. Frank was scared she'd get too loose and fall, so he lowered down.

Then he realised how stupid he was. Annabeth immediately grabbed his talons with his hands and twisted them. Frank yelled in pain and Annabeth let go one hand. She grabbed his neck with another and hauled herself on his back. Then, as fast as lightning, she was controlling Frank as if he were in reins.

Nuh-uh, this was not his speed.

He turned into an eagle and Annabeth fell- but he turned back to a Pegasi just as fast. That way- Annabeth had to hold onto him, or else she'd fall. Or so he thought.

Annabeth had no problem with falling apparently, because she let go. She seemed to have done this before, because she didn't get hurt a bit. She just got back up, running back to battle.

Frank reached it quicker thanks to flight and he landed, before turning back to a dude and drawing his dagger and his gladus at once, hitting a legionnaire with each. He tossed his dagger to an unarmed kid from the third cohort nearby, the one that the two guys he'd disarmed were picking on.

"Thanks!" The kid yelled.

Then a while away he saw a ball of fire burst.

What the heck? How did… Who had matches?

And then he immediately paled. Someone had fire.

Jason

Leo had been about to get stabbed in the back by a soldier in the first cohort. Jason raised his gladus to destroy the punk, but Leo's instincts had activated and the guy busted into flame-mode.

Styx. Leo had been so nervous that they hadn't told the Romans about that yet, and something told Jason that Octavian wouldn't like that particular information being held back.

The guy threatening Leo dropped his sword and backed up, but Leo grabbed it.

"Yeah that's right," Leo said. "Don't go stabbing people in the back, you coward."

Jason hadn't seen the guy's face, or the badges on his armour, but he had a bad feeling about who it was as he ran away.

"Leo! Jason!" He heard someone yell. He turned back and saw Piper. She'd lost her helmet in battle (somehow), and had moved on to Katoptris during the fighting. She sliced through the air pushing a guy back, and turned back to them.

"The banners! You're close!" She yelled at them.

That's when both of them spotted the group of legionnaires still standing in the fort, unmoving. They had to be guards.

"Dakota!" Jason yelled to the closest centurion. He turned around, his eyes wild.

"Lines to the guards in the ruins! The banners!" He yelled. Dakota nodded and yelled orders. Jason jumped high up and landed exactly in place in the lines, and the part of the fifth cohort that was around marched into the forts.

As everyone fought with a guard or two, a small girl that had probably been ignored by the other cohorts because of her size weaseled through the guards, dove under the rubble and bounced up clutching the tattered banners in her tiny fist. The fields filled with cries of victory, starting near, and moving out like sound-waves.

Reyna whistled.

"The game is won!" Percy said. "Assemble for honours!"

Frank

Dakota grabbed his hand in congratulations, but Frank pulled away to get to the injured people on the side lines. He searched for Hazel immediately, but she wasn't there. Uh oh. His heart started beating.

"Are you okay?" He asked them. They nodded or said no or made sarcastic not-happy-with-this comments.

When everyone in his cohort was officially accounted for, he asked a medic where Hazel had been.

"They pulled her off the 'field." He told Frank. "Her burns weren't that bad, but they needed ASAP treatment."

"Anybody else had that? Can I see her?" Frank asked.

"You've got medals to collect, no?" The medic said. "Good job Zhang."

Annabeth

She looked over at Octavian carefully, expecting to get yelled at.

"You…"

"I did warn you they might use a Greek strategy." Annabeth cut right there. She was not going to let him dump a responsibility that was entirely his on her shoulders.

Jason

Everyone scrambled to gather for honours trying to form right ranks.

"Who the heck was the first person to pass the wall?" Percy asked.

"I think the entire team deserve that one for _destroying _the wall. And the fort." Reyna said, amazement mixing in with question in that one.

"Give it to Leo," Frank spoke up. "And Piper. This was their idea, and Leo built the ship sinker."

"Alright then. Leo Valdez and Piper McLean, come here." Reyna said. Percy pinned a mural crown badge on Leo's armour, Reyna on Piper's.

It was the first time a Roman insignia was pinned on Greek armour.


	13. XIII Frank, Piper

XIII

Frank

He sat down next to her and waited for Hazel to wake up. Her life wasn't in any danger, and it'd never been. Her armour had protected her pretty well from the oil burns, but still… Frank couldn't help but remember that her life hung so in the balance just because she came from sometime else.

She stirred and groaned like 'here it goes again'.

"Owe…" She said. Her eyes opened and she looked around.

"What happened?"

"You got burned during the war games," Frank said. Hazel winced in pain.

"Did I at least get the ship sinker hooked?" She asked. Frank nodded.

"We won because of that." He told her. She nodded.

"Who got the mural crown?"

"Piper and Leo." She nodded again.

"Umm, you're probably here for…" she dug in her pocket and took out something wrapped in a piece of cloth. Frank's life line.

"Don't worry, its fine. Nothing happened." She said.

"Hazel, I couldn't care less about that right now." Frank said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are they getting penalised about the oil?" Hazel said after blushing a bit. Frank couldn't believe this girl- she was lying in the infirmary after just waking up from oil burns and she blushed.

"They already lost," Frank said. "But I think the praetors are looking to make a rule against it in case it interferes with training. You know, if someone got really hurt and couldn't train for a while…"

A medic came out into the corner.

"Ah- good, good, she's up, we can finally treat those burns better! Centurion Zhang- out of here, please! Shoo, shoo!"

"But…" Hazel said.

"Listen to the medic, Hazel. They know what's better for you." Frank told her. He squeezed her hand- which didn't look burnt.

"Can you take it for the night?" She asked him, holding out the stick.

"Sure thing," Frank said. He took the stub of wood from her hand. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night." Hazel said.

Walking back to the fifth cohort's barracks, he turned the piece of wood in his hands. He felt way safer when Hazel had it.

Maybe because it meant that she was safe…

Piper

Someone was shaking Piper by the shoulder and she was very much tempted to punch him in the face. No way was it already 7:00 in the morning. Joan had made her do twice the work, the war games had taken a lot over and she was overall exhausted.

"Piper... Piper, wake up. Piper, please..."

She recognised Quinn's voice and opened her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Piper asked Quinn.

"I have to talk to you."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Joan can't hear." That was enough to get Piper to swing her legs out of bed and follow Quinn to the bathrooms. They locked themselves inside.

"I'm debating whether or not I should let the faucet run…" She said.

"They're sleeping."

"Talking will sound suspicious and Joan… Joan's like a hawk. A hawk with anger management." Quinn shifted from foot to foot and held up a tiny test tube with a little blob of gooey stuff in the bottom.

"I found this on the climbing part of the army run." She told Piper, "On the foot hole where you slipped."

"I knew it wasn't just me!" Piper said. Oh, go Quinn… She nodded anxiously. Quinn might be border-line angelic, but she was always so nervous and shy and anxious all the time. Especially around guys, Piper had noticed. Didn't matter how old, who it was, what they looked like (which, as she'd learnt from the Aphrodite girls, was a factor); boys were big and scary for her.

Quinn winced.

"What's wrong?"

"N-n-nothing. I… I tried a few things on it, and I'm pretty sure that it's, that it's, bubble bath."

"Bubble bath?"

"Yes, which means that it's either someone who got to the supply room of the baths, or who lives in New Rome." Quinn said.

"You're a genius, Quinn!" Piper said. Quinn blushed at the compliment.

"I don't know any more than that." She said. "And that I'm not even sure, unstopper it if you want to see, but it smells like roses and soap and when I added water to a tiny portion of it, it bubbled."

Piper thought that was pretty decisive, but she didn't say anything to Quinn. Time was running out and they couldn't be caught. Piper was already getting enough Styx from Joan, and she didn't want Quinn pulled into that either.

"I'll tell the others tomorrow, do you want to come eat breakfast with us?"

"Can I…" Quinn winced again, and closed her eyes, like she was watching a gruesome horror movie scene that she couldn't take.

"Quinn are you okay?" Piper asked worried. Quinn didn't seem to hear Piper, but it was completely quiet.

"Quinn," Piper said shaking her shoulder.

"Oh! I'm fine," Quinn said. She opened her eyes and tried for a smile, but it was not Quinn-like to do, and it looked about as real as school pictures.

"You're sure?"

Quinn nodded but it looked like that nod that you give a teacher when they call you out; 'isn't that right, Ms.?' and then you nod like 'absolutely!' even if you have no idea what class you're even in.

"So what were you saying?"

"Pardon?"

"What were you saying? Should I speak louder?"

"No, it's fine." Quinn said. "I was saying, umm…" she blushed violently. "Can I, you know, umm, talk to Annabeth?"

"Annabeth Chase? Sure! She'd be happy to meet you, Quinn." Piper said. Quinn turned even redder but she smiled shyly. Then she winced again.

"You're sure you're okay?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, not a problem." Quinn said. "Goodnight, you should come out after me, just in case Joan's stirring."

"Alright." Piper said uneasily. Just like that, Quinn left, Piper waited 30 seconds, left as well.

Quinn was on the bottom bunk in the corner and Piper peaked to see how she was doing. Was she hurt or something? Not in training, but maybe after? Shy people always got zeroed-in by the bullies. Oh gods, just the idea of a pack of mean girls after Quinn…

She was on her back and staring at the bunk on top of her, her fists closed over handfuls of her blanket. Her eyes were snapped open.

Piper lowered herself back onto her side and pulled the blankets over her.

What was wrong?


	14. XIV Hazel, Leo, Quinn,

XIV

Hazel

She still hadn't decided what to do about Leo yet. He was like a dangerous laboratory experiment and Hazel had no idea what to do or not. She didn't want it to blow up in her face.

She'd watch Louisianne call down her sisters and have them brew up necromancy spells and practises and whatnot. With a lot of swearing and make-do (like it was Hazel's fault that she didn't have 3 drops of blood from the person she was looking for), they'd managed and no. The answer had been no. Hazel was the only one that had been brought back in the last 25 years. Leo was not 25 years old.

She'd thanked the daughters of Trivia and left. She'd like to think that the daughters of Trivia were wrong but as insane as they appeared to the general audience, they were calm and collected in their minds. Error hadn't been one of the twenty things happening in that shop. Now she wasn't sure what to do.

How do you tell someone their grandfather was your childhood best friend? Did Leo have a Sammy in his family? What if this was a coincidence or something else?

She was trying to figure it out after weaselling from the barrack quickly. She liked to wait for Frank before heading to the mess hall usually –especially now that he was acting really sweet and kind with her- but when she got upset the barrack was just too crowded and noisy for her. It became too much –especially since yesterday she'd been in the calm and quiet infirmary until sunset- and she rather ditch.

She was playing with bits of egg when Leo sat down.

"Hey," he said.

Hazel felt her vocal cords snap off.

"Hey." She said. He looked tired or worried- he was drumming on his thigh and looking everywhere but at people.

_No, _Hazel thought. _That's a Sammy-is-sad thing. This is Leo. It doesn't mean the same thing. You aren't getting anything back right now. Stop it._

Leo

Leo had long figured that going ahead and building the Argo II was going to get Gaia to hate him even more. He just hadn't realised that the revenge would be dreams by the truckload.

Leo was standing in the center green of Camp Half-Blood and the cabins were a mess of wood, glass, coral, barbwire, metal pieces torn at impossible angles and other building materials. The mess hall's columns were even more crumbled than they were, the Big House looked like it'd been torched, strawberry bushes torn from the ground and throw, and the forge looked like a giant had sat on it. That could have been true, because an assortment of giants were the ones destroying Camp.

Leo got mad. Camp had been the first place in a long time where 'home' had been more than a title he had to give. Camp had _become _home. Camp _was _home. It was a place everyone knew his name and got it right (although he'd been warned about some director). Where he was welcome, where people actually cared about him for reasons more than just because his death would mean paperwork…

He did _not _like seeing it crumbled.

_You do realise that this will happen? _A voice called. Leo turned and saw Gaia, walking towards him passing over what he was pretty sure was the Aphrodite cabin.

"It won't. Your giants have no chance. You can't handle a legion and a phalanx all at once." Leo told her, trying to be brave and make it sound like that was an unbreakable plan- like Jason would.

Yes, but for that, you'd need to have the legion and the phalanx fighting as one. Gaia said sticky-sweetly, like she knew exactly how hot things were going.

"It'll happen!" Leo said.

Confident leader was not Leo's style, and Gaia thought so too because she laughed.

You don't believe that. I doubt your leaders believe that anymore. That brings you one step closer to this, Gaia said spreading her arms to show Leo the camp. Yeah thanks, Leo had _definitely _missed that one.

"Get out of my dreams, Dirt Face, I've got better things to dream about."

Oh definitely, Gaia said. A special treat from me.

Gaia wasn't lying this one time. Leo wished she was.

He was about six years old and he'd gotten pink eye. Mom took his wrist and pulled it away from his eye as they walked down the street.

"Stop scratching, _Mijo,_ that's not good for you." She told him.

"Why? It feels good." Esperanza smiled.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean it is. It's like eating a lot of candy at Halloween and getting sick."

"Candy tastes good."

"Yes, but then you're sick. Try to speed up, Leo, we can't miss the bus."

"Why?"

"Because then I can't get to work."

"But you always go to work." Leo had told her. "What if you miss the bus once?"

"Then I don't go to work once."

"Why don't you don't go to work once?" Leo asked. Mom stopped dead in her tracks and looked down at Leo with warm eyes for a second, with the same look she got like before she'd show Leo a new blueprint, or before letting him put his hands above hers when she handled a power tool.

"You know what _Mijo, _I think we can."

Leo'd had one of the best days of his life. He and Mom had walked around all day. They'd gotten hot dogs for lunch and ice cream cones and Leo told her all the jokes his teacher had read from her boring corny joke book. They made her laugh anyways, and that made Leo proud. She looked happy; she looked at peace when they sat down at a park and Leo went on and scampered around the jungle gym, looking at how the bars were wielded together and at the nails. Except it was only a second before she got up and chassed Leo all over the park before she caught him by the waist.

"Let go Mommy, let go!" Leo said, half shrieking half laughing, trying to run away as she started tickling him.

"Never!" She said in her big-scary-monster voice.

Yeah, the memory was happy, but Leo woke up with his mouth feeling disgusting and his body empty. Never she'd said. He wished.

He knew all those sayings about when you lose someone. Junk like 'don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened'. Yeah, well, that was easier said than done. And it's even harder when it turns out that it was basically your fault that it was over. It was actually because of that memory that Leo hadn't eaten hot dogs or ice cream more than he had to since Mom died; that'd been a few days before the fire.

And Gaia was trying to remind Leo of the fire- like he forgot. Like he'd ever forget.

"What's wrong?" Hazel asked him.

"Me?"

"Well, you and I are the only ones here." She said. Leo tried for a smile to make it look better.

"Dreams. Again. I'll live."

Hazel nodded and looked back at the ground.

It didn't take long for the others to show up and even less for the wind spirits to bring food to everyone. How they kept track of what everyone liked- even total strangers- beat Leo. He had troubles with everyone's names, screw their favourite foods.

"Where's Piper?" Jason asked when everyone seemed to have arrived (and after they'd collected Octavian who was trying to sit with a couple of legionnaires from the first cohort who looked disgusted).

"I don't know," Leo said.

"There she is." Frank said. He nudged his head, and Leo saw that Piper wasn't coming alone.

"Hey Piper. Hello again, Quinn." Annabeth said when she saw Piper and the shy girl got within ear's reach. Leo remembered her name at least. Quinn looked about 13? 14? Not much older than Hazel. She had grey eyes behind rectangular glasses, and Leo noticed that her eyes were tired and highlighted with tiny pockets, like she hadn't slept in a while. Just like a lot of his siblings had gotten towards the end of construction. Her blond hair was straight and ended mid-neck, and she was small. The sword at her side was a regulation gladus.

She blushed.

"Hello."

A few people who knew Quinn said hello, and Quinn just blushed and nodded back, muttering 'hi'.

"Quinn thinks she's found something." Piper said. She launched herself into explaining her slip yesterday.

"You didn't mention that," Reyna frowned.

"I didn't think it was a top-notch priority." Piper said, "But Quinn went back and she found out why I'd slipped."

She looked over at Quinn and Quinn seemed to deflate when she realised Piper wanted her to talk too.

"Bubble, umm, err, bubble bath." She babbled.

"Bubble bath?" Frank repeated. Quinn nodded.

"At- at least I- I think…" Quinn stuttered.

"So again someone was trying to make us look bad." Annabeth said. "Why? Haven't we done enough? Haven't we proved our worth?"

"You have," Dakota said. "You guys have been awesome."

"Then why?" She asked again defiantly. Her eyes looked like they'd start shooting lasers any time. Leo had spent a lot of time with Annabeth and Jake over the last 8 months, and judging by the way her eyes were getting darker and stormier this seemed like a god time to run and freaking hide.

Percy put an arm around her.

"That's not how things work here."

Annabeth closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

"You know I can't take him any longer."

And by him she meant Octavian.

"Yeah, same, mine hates my guts." Piper said.

And by mine she meant her centurion (Leo was getting good at this distinguishing rants thing).

"Joan hates e-everyone." Quinn said, trying to be comforting.

"Am I the only one whose centurion actually likes him?" Leo asked feeling like 'score!'

"Probably," Jason said. "Brady's a good guy."

"Brady's awesome, bro!" Leo said. He was determined to lighten up the atmosphere. This talk about bad people was making Leo uncomfortable. Even with Thanatos back loose on the world, demons were stirring for Leo. They'd been stirring even before Gaia had. "First day Brady's all like 'okay, let's put this row of English verbs into Latin- yeay!' And then Percy gives me the trick of destiny, and BAM!"

"That didn't actually work." Annabeth said. This went against study, intelligence, hard-work, digging deep and about twenty other things on the Athenian Ethical Code.

"No, but Brady starts laughing and he's like 'that's cool, no Latin, just Greek, show us'."

"Since when do you even speak Greek?" Piper asked.

"Since the day we started training." Leo said. "If you really concentrate it pops up in your head. I'm trilingual- how sick is that?"

"Yeah, Leo, that doesn't get you brownie points in this group of people." Dakota said. "I for one, speak a very old dialect of Pig-Latin."

It was nearly systematic how Jason took the flask and Reyna dumped its content on a plate of leftovers that an aura was carrying by. She tossed it back to Jason who put it in Dakota's hand that hadn't moved yet.

"Come on, you guys!" Dakota whined.

Percy pushed a glass of water towards Dakota.

"Water," he said.

Quinn

Cate, Jedediah and Quinn had been skipping stones in the Little Tiber.

Cate had been called to help on an aqua-bat dilemma that one of her sisters had caused and she'd had to run.

That left Jedediah and Quinn skipping stones in the Little Tiber and Quinn's heart was beating as fast as the stones skipped.

Her dad often nicknamed her I.Q. because her initials were 'Q.I.' and he said she had a way of understanding things that a lot of people couldn't. But Quinn didn't understand at all. What was it about Jedediah that made her feel small and nervous around him? Why couldn't she just be happy and comfortable with people, like Cate? Why was it especially bad around guys?

But that Quinn knew; the curse.

Although part of it was surely genetical or inherited or something, because even when she was under six years old she was the shyest girl around. Uncle Tyson had never liked speaking to crowds apparently, although it wasn't that bad according to Dad.

She was so focused on her thoughts, once again what would happen if she did decide to like a guy, that her stone just sunk to the bottom. Jedediah smiled.

"Your wrist wasn't right," he said kindly. "Like this."

He took her wrist and placed himself behind her, sending Quinn's heartbeat on a wild sprint. He moved her wrist with his hand.

"If it's too slow, it won't happen." He said. "Try it."

He took a step back and Quinn chided herself for being disappointed, even a little.

She did like he told her and the stone skipped five times.

"Five times," Jedediah said. "Impressive."

"My name means five." Quinn said because she had nothing else to say.

"My mom named me after a guy called Jedediah Smith. He was a mountain man, explorer, hunter, trapper, fur-trader, cartographer, stuff like that. She said he was a brave man, and he got attacked by a bear once."

"I read a book on him." Quinn said shyly.

"I'm sure you did," he smiled.

"He wore his hair long to cover a scar he got from the bear attack."

"I'd never heard that, but I'm ready to bet its right. My mom said it takes a lot of courage to face the unknown and explore mountains. She probably wanted me to get some of Jedediah Smith's bravery." He said.

"I think you got plenty of it," Quinn said shyly. Jedediah smiled at her and she held his eyes. That was one of the first times she actually did.

"I hope so," he said.

"Is that why you don't hate the Greeks?" Quinn asked. "Because they're unknown?" Jedediah shrugged.

"Maybe. I don't see a reason to hate them. Leo in my cohort is a good guy, and he doesn't look like he'd hang out so much with Piper or Annabeth if they weren't too. And I respect Percy- after what he did for the legion, and standing up to Octavian." Jedediah said.

"It looks like people just forgot that last bit." Quinn said. "If you'd ask me, I think Octavian is trying to make everyone forget."

"Opiniative on this, are we?" Quinn blushed but she returned to human colours once she saw Jedediah smiling. "But you're right. You seem to get along with them fine."

Quinn nodded.

"Would it sound stupid if..?" Quinn bit down on her tongue with as much power as a gator's jaw.

_No. N-O-No! You can't buy into it- the voices are twisted and evil and they won't help you in any way! They're messing with your head, scaring you into what they want you to be!_

"If what?" Jedediah asked. Whenever he looked at Quinn, the corners of his lips would go up a bit, like a tiny, shy smile just for Quinn (or that's what she liked to think). And his emerald green eyes seemed to tune out everything else –the Little Tiber's water gurgling past, the monsters in the forest growling and the animals running, the sounds of noisy New Rome- and focus completely on Quinn. Quinn didn't like spotlights, but this was different. It didn't scare her, it made her feel special.

_You can't buy that either- what's wrong with you? _

"If I thought that I might have to go to Greece and Rome with them." Quinn said. Jedediah frowned and examined Quinn like the answer was written somewhere on her.

"You know; you're really smart. Even if you don't walk around with books or blueprints or talk like you're reading out of the dictionary, you're really, really, smart. So if you think you have to go with your gut, and with your brain… you probably do have to go." Jedediah said. Quinn looked down at the Little Tiber. She'd never voiced that out- not even to Cate. Now it seemed so much more real and… logical? Did that sound right?

"But if you do go… I'll miss you." Jedediah said. Quinn looked back at him.

"I'd miss you too." She said with her heart frozen mid-beat. Oh my gods… He was so sweet… Quinn just wished she could hold his hand or kiss him. Which was like wanting the cheese from a mousetrap. "But I'm probably not going to go."

"I don't think you should say that too quickly," Jedediah said. He sat down on the edge of the river and for some reason; Quinn sat down next to him. It shouldn't have mattered to her- that their knees and feet were touching, that he was supporting himself with an arm from behind, an arm that was nearly touching Quinn's…

But it did. And she wished she could stop feeling so guilty about it, every time.


	15. XV Piper, Quinn

XV

Piper

Reyna, Annabeth and Piper laughed as they walked out of the baths.

Piper now held roman baths in her top 10 most fun places to be, especially when she was with Reyna and Annabeth. She felt like the odd one out because Reyna and Annabeth were both warriors, and so alike in so many ways, but somehow that never mattered. Who knew she'd get along with a child of war so well? Two children of war technically…

"Totally agree with you there," Annabeth said. "GPS chips are the next step."

"I'll get Valdez on it." Piper said.

The fort was quiet since it was nearly curfew and most romans were more afraid of being caught out late than of monsters. But Piper and Annabeth had no wish to spend a second more than necessary in their respective barracks, and being with the praetor or Rome- who also happened to be deadly- that didn't matter too much.

"Chip them in their sleep, always useful. He used to run off all the time during the Titan war." Annabeth said.

"The only thing keeping Grace back was that he was still paying off punishment for the last time. And that rarely worked." Reyna said.

"And you weren't involved in that?" Piper smirked.

"'Course I was, but I was the one following him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid."

"That's actually how we ended up in the sea of monsters." Annabeth said. "Gods, that was _not _fun."

"Did I tell you about the sea of monsters, yet?" Reyna asked. Annabeth racked her brain (which should've taken hours) and shook her head.

"Remind me tomorrow. Goodnight. If Joan or Octavian give you any Styx about being late, tell them to pick their bones with me tomorrow." Reyna said.

"Cool, goodnight." Piper said.

"Goodnight." Annabeth and Reyna both disappeared in their respective house/barracks and Piper walked on alone.

She didn't like being alone at Camp Jupiter. She felt like there should be some creepy music playing, or the camera would be cutting from her to a dark, beastly shadow if this was a movie. She'd seen it done tons of times, like her dad's action movies, except she wasn't sure if she could kill whatever would leap out at her. She shouldn't be afraid, these people were her allies, but after being surrounded mostly by people who didn't believe that for a day… Well, Piper was starting not to believe it. And she shouldn't. Bobby, Jason, Reyna, Dakota, Quinn, Brady- so many others didn't believe it but…

Piper tripped on something that wasn't there, and she let out a cry of surprise. She didn't have time to react; she just crashed on the ground, the side of her head taking in most of the shock, and her body's weight. She rolled and she felt a huge pain on her head. When she stopped rolling and stumbling, she froze for a second to realise that her head was throbbing and that she felt blood on her forehead, scrapes on her arms.

_Owe._

Someone turned the corner and she saw Reyna running down the road. Except she jumped over the trip wire.

"Gods of Olympus- are you okay?" Reyna asked kneeling next to her.

"Yeah," Piper said trying to sit up.

"You're bleeding. Tripwire at night, nasty, unhonorable, dirty trick." Reyna said, accessing events so fast only a war child would be able to. Judging by the way her nose crinkled and her eyes got killer, Reyna didn't approve of that. Well that makes two of us, Piper though. She took Piper by the wrists and pulled her to her feet.

"You can stand?"

"I'm fine." Piper said.

"Common," Reyna said. She steered Piper in the right direction and slashed at the ground to find the tripwire. She brought Piper to the baths and they sat down on the edge of one of the fountains in the entry. Reyna took a square of cloth from a shelf and dipped it in. She gently washed Piper's face and helped herself into someone's makeup case to cover what Piper assumed was a bruise.

"Have you… Done this before?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, actually. I used to work at a spa, stupid enough."

"A spa? Was this, like, a magical spa or..?" Reyna laughed and for those few seconds where her eyes lightened, smile brightened- Piper actually saw a 16 year old girl under the armour.

"Circe's spa. Percy and Annabeth destroyed it when they came to the Sea of Monsters, sort-of. although they technically had legit reasons seeing as Percy had just gotten turned into a guinea pig."

"Come again?"

"Long story. Anyways, my sister and I got kidnapped by the pirates they unleashed –another long story. That's how I snapped out of it. Eventually Hylla and I showed them who was boss and got to California. She joined the Amazons, I wandered a bit. I don't know, I could just feel that I had a better option, that I hadn't met the right people yet. The Amazons were cool, but… Eventually I stumbled on Jason, Bobby and Dakota on a quest they were on. I knew right then that I'd found the right people. But it's only now that I realise just how right Jason was…" Reyna's eyes darted away and she became just a bit red. "I mean, sorry, you probably don't care."

Her brain started buzzing as Piper connected the dots.

She _had _been right. She knew it! He'd never said it, but she'd read it from his face since the day that he'd gotten his memory back. There was another girl. She'd purposefully held back from him so she wouldn't have to say it, so she could find out for herself in New Rome but… Reyna? The girl she'd been friends with since their first conversation, and not once had Piper gotten a clue.

What an insult to Aphrodite she was.

"Piper are you okay?" Reyna asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, it just stings a little."

"Do you want ice or something?"

"No, I'm fine, I'll just sleep it off."

"Okay. I'll walk you back."

Piper nodded even if her throat felt tight. She wanted to get away from Reyna just for a second, just to get a grip- Reyna would notice something, and that wasn't something Piper wanted to explain right now.

She tried to keep her breathing down, and it probably sounded like she was trying not to cry. But Piper wouldn't cry.

She opened the door of the barrack and Joan looked up at her from her bunk.

"You're late." She said. "You-"

"That's not a problem, Joan, she was with me. Someone installed a trip wire outside the barrack. Look into it, will you?" Reyna said hinting at very obvious things.

"Yes Reyna, as you wish." Joan said bitterly.

"Good. Goodnight."

Reyna closed the door behind her and Piper walked to her bunk.

"Care to explain?" Joan said.

"I tripped on the trip wire, and cut myself on a rock or something."

"Shame." Joan said although it sounded more like 'good'.

Piper straightened up suddenly.

"Look, is there a reason why you hate me?"

"Pardon?"

"No, no pardon, you heard me. You're standing here in front of your troops and so am I. So tell me, tell me in front of them, one good reason for you to hate me. Have I not been good enough? Because I've overlapped and disarmed some people here. Have I been too whiny and weak? Because I don't complain when you treat me like dirt, and I haven't given up, and you're not going to make me."

Piper had just exploded. Rome was so new to her and she was starting to get into its complex love stories and treachery. It was too much for her and now she was into showdowns as well, looking at Joan right there and right then.

Joan jumped from her bunk and took a step towards Piper. Close enough to slap, so she noticed (uh oh).

"Because you're Greek."

Piper took a step closer to Joan, close enough to grab her wrist.

"So what." Piper said staring her down. Joan stayed quiet but her dagger eyes made that up for her soldiers and Piper, and Joan knew that just as well.

"Bed everyone. Quick. Not a word from anyone." She said, pulling herself into her own bed.

Piper crashed on her bed, fully dressed. She undid Katoptris from her waist and put it down at the head of her bed. Joan called out 'lights in the barrack' and the lights dimmed.

That's when Piper let everything loose in tears that she wasn't sure were about what emotion.

Quinn

She shook in her bed.

People shouldn't shake in their beds. A soldier's bed was the only place that was 'yours' and that you could kick people off of, leave your stuff around and so forth. Beds were supposed to me yours. To Quinn, her bed was hers; but it was her prison.

She had to lie there, for the whole night, listening to the voices without being able to scream, move, protest, cry out, yell, whimper or anything. Have you ever tried to bottle an emotion when someone is describing how they'd kill your best friend if they had 3 knives and a lighter? Well Quinn did; because it was happening to her right now, it had happened to her for as far as she could remember, and it was going to happen to her until she couldn't remember her name and lived in a retirement home.

_The only downside of lighting her clothes on fire is that she wouldn't feel the knife, only the flames. We should just light her hair on fire to increase the panic instead. _

She couldn't tell who was telling her this, and she couldn't tell if they actually had power to do what they swore they would. Male or female? You might as well ask someone who didn't know about the voices- which meant everybody, even Cate or Dad.

Singular of plural? Quinn had no clue whatsoever.

Old or young? Only that Quinn knew; old. Very, very, old. As old as the concept of threats.

It was hard on Quinn. To be scared of nightfall because that brought her one step closer to the voices. It was a kind of psychological torture and Quinn wasn't sure if one day, she'd lie in her bed and break down or not. Most nights she thought 'yes'.

_And your father is a mortal unused to pain- he will be easy to break. We wouldn't even need the lighter for that one. _

Quinn gritted her teeth and rolled to her side. It would never help, it never had. It was like trying to make two North sides of a magnet stick together. But sometimes you just had to do something.

_Nor would we need the knives, it would be easier to just beat him to death- less bloody. And it wouldn't be that hard either. _

Quinn shifted to the other side and shut her eyes.

_Yes; he would be dead in seconds. Your grandmother would be even easier- we could just let her watch her son die. Losing one to cancer, losing one in the midst of the world, watching one die in blood- now that can't be good for her heart. How old is your grandmother? _

They always went for the little details; Mami's parents and Uncle Tyson had heart problems while they were still alive, and the doctors were pretty sure that if something was going to do in Quinn's feisty old grandmother, that would be it.

Or how did they know that one of her uncles had died of lung cancer and the other had gone solo in America, cutting himself off from family without even a note?

They were inside of Quinn's head.

_The hardest to kill would really be that Jedediah boy. _

Quinn's eyes snapped open. This was the first time that the voices brought him up and it panicked her even more than hearing Cate or Dad or Josh or anybody's name up. They _knew._ As Quinn started feeling differently about people, they found out and adapted their threats.

_A brave boy- he definitely would put up a fight, but bravery and skill aren't the same, aren't they? Oh sure, he is skilled as well, but for how long can a skilled man last against an army of the unbeatable? Of the undying? Not long I'm afraid. His bravery would get him killed. Your name will be on his lips when he does, it would be most… Most satisfying to us. _

Tears squeezed out of Quinn's eyes. She wanted Jedediah or Cate or Dad or Josh or _ someone _ right now. She didn't want to be lying in the dark with their deaths flashing through her head. She wasn't supposed to want Jedediah to care, but she did, and she wanted him to know that. She wanted him to know about the voices, about the curse, about everything. She wanted him to put her arm around her anyways, like he nearly had back at the Little Tiber. She wanted to share the weight.

But that would hurt him. 

_All I can tell you is that it will burden her, and that the consequences will surely be terrible., _Minerva had told Quinn's dad.

As much as Quinn hated this, she hated that idea more.

She flipped onto her stomach as some kind of torture device used during the witch hunt was described to her in vivid detail and screamed in her pillow.

Suddenly scared she rose and looked around the room. Nobody had heard her.

Nobody ever heard.


	16. XVI Percy, Jason, Piper

XVI

Percy

Percy looked at Jason as the phone rang. Jason nodded encouragingly and Percy held his breath. It was Sunday; hopefully she hadn't gone out for lunch, or for an appointment, or was working or…

"Hello?"

The voice nearly gave Percy a heart attack and it froze him.

"Hello?" The voice said again. He gave her 3 seconds before she thought this was a telemarketer or recorded message and hung up.

"Mom," Was the only thing he could come up with in that delay. It was probably all he'd have said anyways. There was a shocked silence at the other end of the line and his mom burst into tears.

"Percy! Oh my gosh- it is you- you're okay! Thank you, thank you! Oh- how are you? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine mom." Percy said, his voice getting hoarse. Jason eclipsed himself from the principia and Percy was silently thankful. Pretty sensible for someone directly related to Thalia. "I'm not hurt. But I lost the curse."

"Oh…" she was quiet for a moment. "But you're okay; you're going to be okay."

"Yes mom. How are you?"

"Worried sick about you. Now, are you going to tell me why I have a message on my machine from a number in _Alaska?"_

"I was… In Alaska."

"For the love of god- Percy, did you not get the dream message? Stay put? You never were one for listening, were you honey? Oh god- I've missed you."

"I miss you too. Don't worry mom, I'll make it. I'll come back to New York as soon as I can, and so will the other 6."

"I don't have a doubt, honey."

"Thanks mom." He gave her the long-story-short of the last few days- from waking up with Lupa the she-wolf (which Mom didn't seem to trust half as much as she trusted Chiron), to getting to camp, winning the war games, meeting Mars, going on the quest, the battle, killing the giant (his mother had been holding her breath for so long, he wasn't sure if she'd passed out or not). He tried to smooth down the rough patches, but that was kind of hard since the quest was one big rough patch but hey, he'd gone missing for 8 months- she deserved the truth. He even told her about Ella.

"You're telling me that Tyson…"

"Yes." Percy said grinning imagining her face.

"And a harpy?"

"Yes."

"Those are the bird woman hybrids?"

"Yes. Ella's cool though."

"Well, weirder things have happened, although I never imagined _both _of you to go for the smart ones." Sally sighed. "The important thing is that you, and Frank, and Hazel are safe and that the two sides are together. How is that working?"

"Umm… Annabeth is ready to chop her centurion's head off, I sort-of defied the guy because he's a jerk, latest news is that Piper stood up to hers, but hey, nobody killed the other yet although several near-death experiences have been counted."

"Oh… Well, I'm sure you and Jason can sort it out."

"We're trying Mom, but… It's like the polar ends of a magnet. You can't force them together."

"Unless you're very, very strong." Mom said. "I believe in you. Both of you. They say this is going to be harder than it's ever been, but that's why you're there, Percy. You're Camp Half-Blood's hero. That's how I make it okay every day."

Percy was speechless for a second. Mom had always been a vote of confidence for Percy, but this really made him feel like he clicked into Camp again.

"I miss you. Really badly."

"I miss you too."

"But it gives me something even more to fight for. Tell Chiron for me, explain to him what happened, what's happening, and where everything stands. Tell him to try to contact us, and tell him that we're going to be okay."

"I will Sweetheart. I love you."

"I love you too."

Jason

When he heard the phone hang up Jason gave Percy a minute. He remembered how hard it'd been for him to hear what Thalia had to say about his mom. He was going to leave Percy a second to get used to _his _mom.

He opened the door to the principia and saw Percy staring at the phone. He turned around to look at Jason.

"Hey," he said. "Thanks."

"No problem." Jason said. Percy put the phone down near the jelly beans. He picked a few blue ones out.

"Where'd Bell go?"

"No clue," Jason said. "For all I know she went ahead and started training without us. She's restless nowadays. She can't sleep right, she always feels like she should be doing something."

"I sort-of feel the same way." Percy said.

"Ditto," Jason said.

They walked out of the principia.

Percy didn't know why, but he'd gotten into a habit of always locating the cohorts whenever he stepped outside a building. It was weird and he noticed that Reyna and Jason did the same thing.

They passed the first cohort and Octavian and Annabeth were in a shouting match. Percy stopped to at least listen for a minute.

"If you're so clever Octavian, if you're so worthy and sure of yourself, then tell me why I'm a bad person because I was born on the East coast." Annabeth defied.

"I will not have you disrupt training, get back in line."

"I will not have you disrespect my heritage and then have the nerve to deny it." Annabeth said back. "You're such a knight in shining armour- bull Octavian, because snakes don't wear armour."

"Oh, her too?" Jason said.

"Shh," Percy said.

"I've had enough, I've got authority here, and I will call the praetors on you, Chase. And whether your little boyfriend likes it or not it'll be his duty to punish you adequately."

Annabeth broke the starring contest and went back into line. Jason got the feeling she didn't want to have Percy stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Now let's try this again." Octavian told his cohort in a sticky-sweet voice. Jason rolled his eyes and tugged at Percy's arm to get him moving.

"None of them are going to take any of this much longer," Percy warned. "Leo's doing fine, but Piper and Annabeth won't. They're too strong-headed."

"I know," Jason told Percy. "And I think same goes for Octavian and Joan. They rather both of them just shut up and sit tight, but of course that won't happen."

"We need to come up with phase 2 fast or else we won't get there."

"Let's find Reyna first." Jason said, "Then we'll ask her. What do you think?"

"About finding Reyna?"

"About phase two."

Percy stayed silent for a moment.

"I don't know how things work around here. But I think that we should find the seven half-bloods that the prophecy keeps talking about, send them off, and figure out what to do about Ella."

"Right. Ella… Octavian's main power is the future, if he knows the books like Ella does, we're done. People are going to trust him- not just fear him, _trust _him. Even more." Jason said.

"So Ella stays a secret. And she'll have to be kept away. She can't stay here."

"So where? We need to keep an eye on her."

"Camp Half-Blood?" Percy suggested.

"That's a gambling piece that Camp can't have." Jason said immediately.

"Camp wouldn't-" Percy started accusingly.

"I'm not saying it will!" Jason interrupted him. "But what if Octavian finds out? If the first cohort, possibly others, march up to camp and demands for Ella or the legion attacks- what is camp supposed to say?"

"Okay, not camp… Poseidon' s palace? She really likes Tyson and she'd follow him, and I'm sure they can get her to breathe."

"No, the romans don't trust Neptune and if Ella turns out to think more roman than Greek…"

"Can monsters be Roman or Greek?" Percy asked.

"Umm… Tyson doesn't speak Latin, and he technically is a monster."

"Right, carry on."

They walked in silence to the coliseum trying to figure it out. Mythological places were dashing through his brain at a mega speed. Where was there? The Wolf House? Octavian wouldn't dare to challenge Lupa, and Lupa wouldn't take it if he did. A god's custody? Minerva probably had a library on Olympus Ella would probably love- but Jason chided himself for thinking that. Gods didn't grant favours. Gods weren't present unless they needed a favour or a war thought.

Reyna was in the center with a huge brown dummy with turning pieces and extending arms with spikes. As they swung she blocked, veered off, hit, kicked or ducked the arms. Jason had seen it done in karate movies and all that, but this was the real thing and even cooler. Especially because Reyna was both vicious and agile.

"Reyna," Jason called.

"Don't distract me!" Reyna said, jumping over a low piece, with a hand held out to freeze a higher arm.

Jason summoned the winds and tipped the machine. Reyna sighed and turned around. Her bangs and whatever was loose from her braid was stuck to her face with sweat- how long had she been here, anyways?

"It's really that important?" She called over.

"We're fighting the earth and an army of giants; I think everything is important right now." Percy said. Reyna pulled a purple t-shirt over her tank top and walked over.

"What now?" She said. "Who died?"

"We've got a problem."

"Another one?"

"We passed Annabeth and Octavian in a shouting match on our ways here. This isn't going to last much longer, and time's running out. It's been a week; we need to get the Argo II out of here." Jason told her.

"Fantastic, senate meeting." She said rolling her eyes.

"I know, your favourite." Jason said. "But this is important."

"We're fighting the earth and an army of giant, isn't everything important?" Reyna picked up her belt with her scabbard from the side and called to them on her way out;

"I'm going to go find something to kill in the woods. With any luck the monster will be blond and talkative."

Piper

When she'd walked into the mess hall with Frank and Hazel Piper had had a terrible morning.

She'd been doing horrible, which of course Joan loved because it gave her even more of an opening to make fun of Piper, which she'd subsided for the whole morning until Piper had rolled into someone during the obstacle course.

Piper pushed herself harder but at some point, she couldn't do it anymore. That's how she'd taken her mind off of everything for the last few months- off of the idea of going on a dangerous quest with higher stakes than the last, of Drew, of Jason, of lying to Dad about 'school', of the Argo II being built on Camp's lawn… Trained all day, went to bed so exhausted she barely remembered her dreams. It'd paid off- she was better of a sword fighter than she'd ever expected from herself. But not today. Today she just felt sick. And it was like she'd forgotten how to deal with her emotions. Never good.

Her head hurt, she had barely slept, and her mind was _completely _elsewhere. She'd failed at everything except for eagle landings, which was at least something.

It shouldn't bother her that Jason had a girlfriend. She'd suspected it, right? She'd been sure there was something more, she'd seen it coming, she'd felt it in his presence. Was it the fact that it was someone she'd learned to actually care about during the short week?

Yes.

It shouldn't, that was stupid Aphrodite girl behaviour. But… There was always a 'but'.

And that was the absolute least of Piper's problems right now. She didn't know why she was taking everything so seriously and intensely right now. It was like all these tiny things had added up and now meant the world.

What a suckish world.

Frank was trying to entertain her by changing his head to different animals. One second he was a chipmunk man (which was as disproportionate as it sounded), the next he had a long trunk and flappy ears like a barn door.

"You're taking this part-time pachyderm thing really seriously, aren't you?" She asked. Frank went from bear to man.

"Hey, it's fun, and I get epic looks." Frank said.

"Are you sure you're oaky?" Hazel asked her.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"That's an ugly cut."

"It's okay Reyna… Reyna fixed it for me."

"Why are you hesitating? She's not anti-Greek deep down, is she? Don't tell me she is. Please don't." Frank said.

"No! No, no, of course not." Piper said.

They sat down and a messenger stopped.

"Senator meeting, senators, Greeks, quest members, and centurions welcome." She said.

"Thanks Tessie." Hazel said kindly. The girl nodded shyly, like Hazel scared her before running off. Piper didn't think that was much fair, but nothing in New Rome had been fair with outsiders so far.

"That should be interesting." Frank said as a plate of eggs and pancakes landed in front of him. Shrimp gumbo and bean soup were about 3 seconds later and Piper dug in. Trying so hard had starved her.

"Why breakfast for lunch all the time?" Piper asked.

"He likes eggs and bacon." Hazel said softly. She blushed and Frank stared at his pancakes.

"You think they're going to talk about the Argo II much?" He asked in an effort to steer the conversation.

"Probably," Piper said. "And no offence to anybody here, but I'm ready to get out of here."

"None taken. Joan is being horrible to you. You should've been put in the fifth cohort. Centurion Zhang isn't half bad." Hazel said.

"I feel like they put me there to impress and I don't think it's working."

"What are you talking about Piper, you're definitely impressive!" Frank said. "You've got the charmspeak, and the knife, and the landing skills…"

"He's right," Hazel nodded. "Why are you so down today? Did you sleep at all last night?"

"I'm not down, I'm just thinking."

Piper was saved from questions like 'what about?' by Tyson who sat down with them. Ella swooped down seconds after, and she perched herself on the back of the seat. Tyson passed her a cinnamon bun that she took with a 'thank you' in about 7 different languages. That was one thing that had changed since Rome; Tyson didn't say hello with hugs that squeezed the breath out of you (not that that was a bad thing), he just said 'hello'. It didn't take much longer for Jason, Reyna, Bobby, Dakota and Leo (who were laughing like lunatics and hanging on to each other's arms) to get here.

"Where are Percy and Annabeth?"

"Annabeth and Octavian got in a fight. Something about calling Greeks primitive and hinting to insults on Annabeth's intelligence or something." Reyna said.

"Damn, Octavian's still alive?" Leo said, suddenly snapped to seriousness.

"Thank the gods," Hazel said. She got weird looks. "What? If Annabeth would kill Octavian, we'd all be screwed!"

"Percy took her to the fields of Mars to show her the fort for the war games and get her to blow off some steam." Reyna said. Piper didn't meet her eyes and when she looked up, she saw Reyna frowning at that like 'what?'

"Sure…" Dakota said. "That's what you _tell _the girl."

"Dakota, do you mind?" Reyna said.

Dakota started laughing like a drunk again and Leo laughed too.

"This guy is even more insane then I am!" He said.

"That should _scare _you, not _amuse _you." Piper said.

* * *

><p>They had to pass the crazy border god again to get in the senate. <em>He <em>was more insane than Leo. He and Piper argued about the beads in her hair (supposedly they could be… weapons? Piper hadn't thought of that but it sounded cool), and then he argued with Leo about the length of his hair, and he complained loudly when Annabeth had to show him passports for the Greeks instead of pretty tattoos. Piper was going to wait before having that burned into her skin.

They sat in the senate, and it looked like everyone was there. Tyson and Ella were sitting in the back, sharing a cinnamon bun. Hylla and her right-hand woman Kinzie were sitting up front with the senators, then the Greeks and Hazel at the second row, the centurions in the back row. Veterans and Lares filled in the rest. Piper had spotted Gwen, who was holding a heavy looking book bag over her shoulder and sporting a 'New Rome University' hoody.

There was a ceremonial beginning and description of situation, which seemed useless to Piper seeing as everyone knew what the Hades was going on.

"Hazel, Frank, Percy, Jason, Leo and Piper are going to go." Reyna said. "That's decided. But that's only six and we're looking for seven. Who's seven?"

Octavian got to his feet and Piper felt herself hold back a groan. Here we go…

"I think the numbers should tip in the favour of the larger empire, thus Rome. If Ancient roots are being dug up, so should traditions." Octavian said. A few people nodded.

"What about Annabeth?" Frank asked before Piper could. "Where is she going to go?"

"Well, she could stay here," Octavian said, "Or she could go home. It was written in no stone that Annabeth has to come."

"And in what stone can I find 'there must be four romans on the ship'?" Piper asked. "It's dangerous to send a demigod from one camp to another, on her own, cross-country, don't you think Octavian?" Octavian pursed his lips. If he said that Annabeth could manage he'd look insensitive, if he said that Annabeth could do it he'd look pro-Greek. Piper felt a burst of success inside of her- she'd just trapped a rat in the corner.

"I am sure it can be arranged for the journey to be safe. There will be a lot of communication and back-and-forth between San Francisco and New York in the next few weeks, won't there?" Octavian said.

"If the senate wants the fourth half-blood to be a Roman, alright. I'll make my way back to New York somehow, I'll figure it out. But I have input on who should go." Annabeth said. Octavian rolled his eyes like 'doesn't she ever stop?' Piper felt like replying 'don't you?'

"Who?" Reyna asked after shooting Octavian a look.

"A child of Minerva," Annabeth said. There was a silence.

"Come again?" Larry asked.

"A child of Minerva. The wisdom goddess…"

"We know who Minerva is!" Hank called out.

"Well then, that's all I had to say." Annabeth said. She sat back down and crossed her legs to watch how that played out. I tried to figure it out. A child of Minerva..? When had this..? I'd never heard about that before.

"Well, your input is appreciated, but moving on-" Octavian said like he was boss of this.

"No," Percy said cutting the illusion. "Annabeth, why?"

And that's when she started reciting.

"You must go north to find the legion's crown

Falling from ice the son of Neptune shall drown

Wisdom's daughter walks alone."

I kept my jaw from dropping. Those were Ella's lines. Oh my gods- Annabeth was going to rat out Ella!


	17. XVII Annabeth, Piper

XVII

Annabeth

Piper was looking at Annabeth like she'd just pulled a knife and had it at a guy's throat. So was anybody else who knew about Ella. Tyson looked at her like she'd just destroyed him, and he had his hand on Ella's wing protectively- which really made Annabeth feel a tad guilty. Ella just stood there muttering about Julius Caesar.

"Prophecy, prophetic, prophet, oracle, augury, Rachel, Octavian, yep, yep, yep."

"Where did you get that?" Percy said. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow expecting something.

"What [i]_is[/i]_ that?" Larry asked.

"Those are prophecy lines. Unlike you, we don't work with augurs; we work with the Oracle of Delphi."

A whisper of excitement went through the crowd.

"She's alive?" Octavian said coldly.

"Yes. Rachel Elizabeth Dare is hosting the oracle right now. She lives at Camp. Maybe one day I'll introduce you, Octavian." Annabeth said. Octavian looked at her coldly, but Annabeth couldn't help it. Being cheeky and smart-mouth with Octavian was her fun nowadays. "Anyways, I had a dream last night. Rachel was saying those lines, back at camp. It refers to a child of Minerva, or Athena."

"That walks alone. Not in a crew, not in a ship- he doesn't sail."

"She might." Annabeth said. "Why would my dreams show me that if it wasn't something I needed to know? The patterns in dreams are either to torture you or show you what you need to know. If I had to know a child of Minerva was going to play a part, it must be important to my situation right now, thus, the selection of the crew."

"You said 'she'." A senator called Norah said.

"Octavian said 'he'." Piper parried.

"Do you believe you are child of wisdom?"

"My mother is Athena," Annabeth said. "I've known it since I'm seven. But not this one."

"I think she's right," Percy said. "If we go with what we have, this is our best lead. How many children of Minerva are there at Camp?"

"6 if you count the people in New Rome, but three currently in the army." Jason said. "There's Benjamin and Lucius Verity who are 18 right now, Samantha Oran, 17, and Quinn Hunter, 13."

How he knew that by heart, Annabeth had no idea and only admiration for.

"Well, which one of the twins or Samantha?" Hank asked.

"Or Quinn." Piper said.

"She's too young and inexperienced." Hank said dismissively.

"Don't call her inexperienced," Reyna said suddenly. "She fought in the Titan war and made it through. She pulled one of our men from under a collapsed tree. She's just as experienced as those old men in the city with 11 bars on their arms. Some of us have done amazing things at the age of twelve only, Hank."

Annabeth tried not to glare at Percy.

"Then she is young."

"[i]I'm[/i] thirteen." Hazel piped up.

"Wrong, you are 83. And that is an exception." Octavian said. Hazel became red with anger when he mentioned her bone age.

"My real age-"

"Is a subject for another day." Piper saved. "But general agreement says that yes, Hazel is 13 years old."

Octavian ignored that last bit of truth. "We could summon them."

"Great idea," Percy said. "Lucas?"

The messenger got up and walked towards the doors.

"And Quinn." Piper said.

Octavian looked annoyed when the messenger nodded and said 'definitely, of course, can't forget her now can we?' like it was sake-of-the-world important. Piper looked like she hadn't meant to charmspeak that last bit, but Annabeth more than agreed.

Leo got up and presented the inside pictures of the Argo II, which got some ooh and ahh, and showed them the flight path that the whole of Camp Half-Blood had killed themselves over. They'd fly over the United States, land in the Atlantic, sail to the Mediterranean…

They had a 15 minute argument on whether or not to alter the flight plan. Oh. Boy. These people fought for anything, did they? Annabeth respected fighters, but this was different; this was to cause conflict on Octavian and Joan's part. The course represented the quickest flight they could! Except they would have to alternate between flight and sail to keep both Jason and Percy safe. Hazel grimaced, and Annabeth felt sorry for her. They hadn't counted on a daughter of Pluto, and there was no way the Argo II could sail the Underworld anyways.

Finally they decided to stick to the original flight plan.

"And, well, we'll play it by ear when they got there. We don't know exactly what it's going to look like once we get there," Leo said pointing to Home Sweet Home. "Annabeth and a lot of other people were thinking that Greece and Rome might sink back to what they once were."

She wished Leo would stop putting her name on the projects- it would only solicit more disapproval from Rome. She was doing a pretty pathetic job at earning their trust. And trust was something they needed in industrial quantities.

"Togas?" Hank said.

"Sort-of. I think we're worrying more about the monsters." Leo said. "We're going to have to take it as it comes and figure something out."

Which sounded like no plan to Annabeth, but nobody in the senate could offer anything better.

Piper

The door of the senate opened to two long and lean guys with black hair and grey eyes, and Quinn, trailing behind and looking scared to death of being in the senate. She readjusted her glasses on her nose and fiddled with the buttons on her jacket.

"Samantha Oran is in the infirmary because of the last War Games." Lucas told them. "She's still not okay."

"Then she might not be for the departure of the ship." Reyna said. "Let's leave her out this once."

"Yes ma'am." He told Reyna like she was going to beat him up if he said no. Piper cracked a smile.

"Thank you," Jason told Lucas who sat back down in the corner. "Take a seat." He told Quinn and the twins.

The three of them sat down, looking at each other and exchanging hypothesises via brain waves. Maybe not, but children of the wisdom goddess had always freaked Piper out that way.

"We think that one of you is going to go on the Argo II, as one of the prophecy of seven."

They all looked at each other and seemed to be talking with pure looks.

Either Lucius or Benjamin raised his finger.

"Senators, praetors, may I ask why?"

So he got the long-story-short.

"I can't go." One said.

"Why not Benjamin?"

"I can't separate from my brother. He's hard of hearing, and I'm hard of sight since the Titan War. We act as each other's eyes and ears." Benjamin said.

"You wouldn't be alone on the ship." Percy pointed out.

"We can't separate." The one that must be Lucius insisted. "The only reason we're in the legion is because we're together- if one left the other's training would go down the drain for one, and both our lives would be at risk because the crew wouldn't be used to helping us, or know exactly how."

Annabeth

Quinn looked at them like she'd put one and two together. Annabeth felt sorry for her. That was always a scary moment.

"I hate to say it, but Quinn's going to have to go." Benjamin said. Quinn swallowed. Lucius gave her a punch in the arm.

"You can do it, Quinny," he said. Quinn thought things over for a second, contemplating options.

She looked at the praetors.

"I'll go on the… the… the-A-argo II."

"Are you sure?" Octavian said looking at Quinn with daggers in his eyes. "It'll be beyond dangerous with monsters that Camp might not even know about. And you've never been on a quest before."

"N-n-neither have y-you." Quinn stuttered.

But somehow the words came out of a bullet and Annabeth had to bite back a smile and swallow down the urge to give Quinn a hug. Octavian's face was turning the colours she'd come to love seeing (and provoking, even if that was a bad thing. Bad Chase, bad).

"That wasn't the question," he said. He sounded like the victim to Annabeth. Poor, poor Octavian, always accused of being the Big Bad Wolf even if he was minding his own business and trying to do the best for Rome. Annabeth had some names for that a little stronger than 'liar' and 'hypocrite' for him.

"The answer isn't arguable anyway." Jason said. "Quinn will come."

"Welcome aboard," Leo said.


	18. XVIII Quinn, Piper, Jason

XVIII

Quinn

Quinn had been invited to stay for the rest of the senate. She could tell you everything that had happened, but in the moment she hadn't registered a single word, she just remembered being so, so scared.

So scared the victorious part of her –the one that was happy about going on the path of all those 'great things' that Minerva had told Dad about- had basically drowned.

The voices had been telling Quinn this would happen forever. They had told her she was destined to do great things- probably why she'd been scared of great things for a while. Since she'd started understanding the voices, and realising that they were a part of her world, and no one else's. She'd always stuck to the shadows; she'd gotten scared of public speaking… Her shyness came back down to the voices. Three problems tied to that one and- wait a second… An idea hit Quinn like a train with no brakes. What if her curse was tied with the voices? What if it was the one reason the voices were there- or vice-versa? She'd never connected the dots before.

Quinn wished she understood, or had someone to ask, but she didn't. She was stuck in the mud, and in a quest that was going to leave in four days, so she'd been told.

She had three days to get used to the idea, tell Cate and Josh, tell _Dad, _tell Jedediah…

That was a lot of goodbyes.

She broke it to her friends at suppertime. They sat at their usual table, except alone, and Cate was waving any disturbances away for the moment as Quinn stuttered though an explanation of how Lucas had come to draw her out of a bookstore in New Rome where she'd been trying to find a book on particles. She didn't mention that it was for Jedediah, who sounded actually legitimately interested now. She told them how Lucius and Benjamin had counted themselves out and that so had Annabeth, and thus that was how such a big responsibility had fallen on her.

Cate wrapped her arm around Quinn.

"That's good! You'll be able to show your stuff to the world! You can do this, Quinn!" Cate said trying to be the optimist that makes everyone smile. Quinn looked up and Cate wasn't smiling. Even when Quinn wasn't wearing her glasses, she always saw Cate smiling usually.

Josh joined in and both of them bombarded Quinn with well-meaning encouragements and cheer-ups. Jedediah didn't say anything and Quinn only looked up to him once. He looked shocked. He should be- someone like _him_ deserved the job. Not a bottom sucker like Quinn who had only impressed the fourth cohort because she'd traveled from far away, and spoke French, and a bunch of other tiny things. Who was scared of talking to people or groups or strangers. Someone with a clue, honour, a name for themselves…

He just reached for her hand and squeezed it.

"You're meant for this," he said. "People are meant for stuff that they're good at."

Now, lying in bed, that was going through her head like a pulse.

_You're meant for this. People are meant for stuff that they're good at._

Over, and over, and over. Maybe there was a reason she was her. Maybe she had something to bring to the quest party too- she just had to figure out what. In three days. Before they left.

Quinn shivered at the thought in her bed. She shivered some more once the voices got into their new favourite theme; death of Jedediah Adams.

Over, and over, and over.

Quinn got up and ran to the bathrooms. She turned the water on and splashed her face a few times.

_You're meant for this. People are meant for stuff that they're good at._

Not even true. Quinn wasn't good at dealing with this, and the circles under her eyes were concrete evidence. She wasn't good at hiding it either- she must look like a zombie to anyone else out there. She felt miserable.

When Quinn came back from school after a really bad day, like after a race, Dad could immediately make her feel better. She wished Dad were around right now. If he'd fixed her up a few days before she'd been picked up by the wolves, he could fix her any day.

She remembered the worst of those days.

It'd been spring. A late spring, it was still cold in May and people were still wearing winter jackets. They lay abandoned on the side of the school at lunch because the weather warmed with the day, and it was exactly the time of the year where the guys started to beat themselves up if they had no girlfriends and vice-versa. Or at least in Quinn's school it was.

A time of the year Quinn had hated since sixth grade, when the couples had really gotten started at her school. Today proved her exactly right. Over the top of a book on Minerva- a subject she'd studied since she'd heard Dad use the name years ago- Jean LeCavalier walked across the school yard to come talk to her.

"Hey Quinn, beautiful day, isn't it?" He asked Quinn. The school was French –of course it was, they were in Quebec- but Jean spoke English to sound smarter than everyone most of the time. A lot of people had trouble with English, or at least horrible accents.

"Yes," she whispered, praying for him to go away quietly.

"Beautiful day for, say, milkshakes at the truck." Jean said. Quinn cursed him. He wasn't going away quietly…

The truck was just a food truck whose name had worn off before any of the kids her age had been born, so 'the truck' it was. Nothing special, but it was the cheapest place for fries, poutine, burgers, ice cream, milkshakes- you name it. That was a basic date for kids in the seventh grade because it was the cheapest thing around, and the guy running the truck was generous. If you came often, you got your fries turned into a poutine for a quarter more.

"Umm… No thanks…" Quinn said.

"Aww, c'mon Hunter." He said. Quinn muttered something about having to help her dad at the bakery and homework, but Jean ignored her royally. She might as well have said nothing.

"I don't want to go out with you."

"What if I-"

Quinn didn't even wait to hear him out; she just sprinted off like a doe.

Looking over her shoulder she saw Jean just standing there in shock before he ran after her again.

Quinn didn't break a sweat; she could do this all recess. Since the first time in first grade when the kids at her school started playing a game where you kiss whoever you caught (that hadn't lasted long once the teachers found out- but that's another story), Quinn had perfected the art of running away and making air _fast_.

She had the highest endurance during the tests in gym class, she could run the most laps around the track… That came from a lot of running. When she was in third grade people would just run after her for the fun of making her sweat. She even ran for the fun sometimes- was it crazy to say that she might like the way it made her muscles burn? Or watching landmarks and people scroll through and get behind her? That maybe sometimes she imagined that the curse and the voices were behind her as well? Maybe. But Quinn needed those 20 minutes a day where everything felt over.

It may sound stupid, but that's also how Quinn _managed _the curse. Guy came to bug her for some unknown reason? Run away. If he was left in the dust wondering 'what?', he generally wouldn't follow. Except for the super-egomaniacal ones. Like Jean.

Quinn rounded a sharp corner and he just pivoted as he ran.

Quinn ran anyways, brushing away the fatigue. She had slept for about… 4 hours? Yeah, this had been a 4-hour week. But Quinn ran anyways.

She knew that it wasn't 'marriage' as such, but she still felt _so_ uneasy around guys… She didn't know why, she couldn't help it. So she ran then too. She never let herself get close, just in case. Maybe the curse was high-sensible. Either way; Quinn wouldn't let herself get caught dead with a guy. Because then she might be dead for all she knew.

And yeah: she'd figured that one out when she was eight.

The rest of the afternoon was long and miserable. Quinn had exhausted herself running from Jean- she'd forgotten he was on the soccer team- who had yet to catch her anyways. She was brain dead during math, she'd forgotten to do homework because of some vivid descriptions of witch hunt torture devices last night, and she got yelled at even more when she didn't know the question that the teacher had pointed at her to answer…

She dragged her feet walking back home. Jean looked at her in the hall and he tried to grab her hand but she swatted it away. Nuh-uh. She was running for a reason- why did they never get that?

She stepped out of the bathroom where she'd gone to try and calm herself down, and someone was waiting for her.

Quinn jumped but soon recognised Piper. The later put a finger to her lips before taking her gently by the wrist and going to the door. Okay; Quinn was being taken somewhere in the middle of the night. That's not how any bad things happened to movie and book characters at all. The ominous, pessimistic and violent voices in her head weren't helping her make this a better picture.

Percy and Annabeth were waiting outside. Quinn frowned but Annabeth only waved and took Quinn's other wrist. Quinn knew better, and held her tongue.

They walked towards… the praetor's house? Quinn's eyes widened. This was a first- she'd get to see what a real luxurious roman house looked like. That was a sight destined for impressive. She wished she had her glasses.

When Reyna Bell opened the door, she wasn't disappointed at the inside, but she looked around at the people there and connected the dots.

7 prophecy children, Reyna, Annabeth, Ella the harpy, and Tyson the Cyclops.

"Sit down; this is going to be fun." Reyna said. Her voice dripped with enough sarcasm to flood the enormous house.

Quinn sat down between Annabeth and Hazel.

"Hi Quinn. We're going to catch you up on what's happening." Jason said. He told her about how big the Octavian problem really was for them, about Ella the harpy- Quinn's jaw dropped right there. She tried to listen harder than the voices were taunting.

"How can she e-even r-r-read? W… Who t-taught her?" Quinn asked.

They all stared at her.

"See, we didn't think of that until Annabeth brought it up and it's the first thing you say." Percy said.

Annabeth smiled at Quinn before turning back to the person talking.

"We haven't figured that part out yet." Hazel said.

"Words. Words good for harpies. Words make harpies smart. Clever. Knowledgable. Educated. Witty. _Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure."_ Ella mumbled. Tyson put a hand on her talon to calm her down.

"She likes it, anyways." Frank said. Quinn had more questions. How old was Ella if she'd been around for the Sibylline books? Had she memorised any other documents, like the ones lost in Pompeii or anything? Where did she come from? Was she sent as a decoy or anything by the enemy? Was that were Annabeth's lines about the mark of Athena truly come from?

Piper

Someone took her by the arm and spun her around. She was alone at night –heading back before Quinn and Annabeth finished a long conversation on something Piper didn't even understand, walking back from the midnight meeting with the Argo II's crew, and for a second Piper had gotten scared. It faded when she saw Reyna. She stared at Piper with question marks in her eyes.

"Look, I know I'm a harsh person, and I'm not a social butterfly or whatever you want to call it, but what did I do?"

"What do you mean?" Piper stuttered.

"You've been avoiding me. For a few days. You don't look me in the eyes. That was one thing I liked about you- you looked me in the eyes. Not a lot of people do that. And you try not to look or talk to me now." Reyna said. The question was obviously important to her; you could see it in her eyes. The answer was too; except Piper didn't have one. Why was she taking out a stupid little crush on Reyna? Especially since she didn't know anything about it, and it wasn't her fault. It wasn't anybody's fault (if not Hera's).

She stared Piper down waiting for an answer and Piper felt the pressure build up. What did she tell Reyna? The truth? If Reyna heard the truth she wouldn't like it. But she wouldn't like any lie that Piper said either, and Piper wasn't sure she wanted to try charmspeak on the praetor. Reyna was too single-minded and determined, possibly stubborn, to fall for it.

"I just found out you were Jason's girlfriend," Piper said. Reyna frowned.

"And?" She said.

"And… And… Well, he woke up knowing me and Leo, right?"

"Yes…" Reyna said tip-toeing around the subject cautiously.

"Well, guess how he knew me." Piper said. Reyna's face went slack and she frowned.

"Juno did… Juno isn't a…" She shook her head and stared at Piper again. "I'm…"

"Sorry? 'Cause you're not. He kept pulling back from me on the quest like it didn't feel right to him. He felt you. And after his memory got back he was always in his own little bubble." Piper said. Reyna's brain must be going at a thousand miles as hour, figuring out who was who on the chess board.

"Piper, umm…"

"Yeah." Piper said. She shrugged. "Sweet dreams."

Jason

Last time he'd seen Reyna so angry and agitated, he'd been heavily armed and he sort-of wished the circumstances were the same right now.

"Can I come in?" She asked.

"Yeah," Jason said. She never knocked. Usually she just barged in and yelled something like 'Grace I'm in your house, don't freak' or 'put a shirt on, I'm in here'. What was up?

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Why didn't you tell me about Piper?" She asked looking at him with eyes like a tiger. Fierce, intimidating and beautiful in that one in a million way.

"Piper?" He asked. She crossed her arms.

"You woke up in a buss eight months ago thinking she was your girlfriend, did you not?" She said.

"Oh," Jason said finally putting one and two together.

"Yeah 'oh'." Reyna said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know, it didn't seem important." Jason told her honestly. Watch Reyna buy it- yeah right. She wouldn't believe it.

"Jason don't you think I might have wanted to know that?" Reyna said. "Piper thought you were her boyfriend, that's something worth sharing!"

"I didn't think you would!"

"And you didn't tell me this anyways? You told me everything else about anything else before. Did something happen?"

"No!" Jason said. He got to his feet and took her hand to calm her down so she'd listen. "Reyna, nothing happened. I swear on my life. The second I remembered you, I couldn't forget you."

Reyna sighed.

"I'm sorry I freaked. It shouldn't bother me this much. We never said anything about it before you left, so it shouldn't be any of my business."

"Can we say something about it now, then?" Jason said. "I really, really like you Reyna and, well… It doesn't feel right to just kiss you and say nothing more about it."

"Then I guess that makes me your girlfriend." Reyna said. "Since I really, really like you too."

Jason felt a weight off his chest because he'd wanted to mention that for a long time, and finally she'd basically opened the door for him.

Plus he always lost it when Reyna kissed him.


	19. XIX Quinn, Annabeth, Frank

XIX

Quinn

Annabeth and Reyna were looking over at Quinn as she dialled the number home.

"Is long distance okay?" Quinn checked. She would not enjoy being yelled to about that.

"Yes," Reyna said.

"Where's home?" Annabeth asked.

"Quebec." Quinn admitted.

"I thought you had a bit of a French accent," Annabeth smiled. Usually when people said that she used to get timid, because it was true, she stuck out like a sore thumb, et cetera. But Annabeth said it like it was no problem, and being from Quebec was something to admire- which Quinn had always been proud of. Her grandmother told her stories and stories, and she read in history class about how her ancestors had come from France and defended territory so valiantly. "Not all civilisations get a free pass to land and wealth and history books", she'd once said.

Besides; Quinn had illegally crossed an international _border _and a country from basically right to left to get here. With a pack of wolves, she might add, and they enjoy traveling thoroughly. If that was not something to be at least mildly proud of- Quinn gave up. 

Annabeth gave Reyna a little nudge in the elbow and they both marched out of the room, back into the Principia. Quinn was alone. She finally let herself yawn that stupid annoying yawn that had been bugging her all morning.

Sleep rates had gone from 1.5% to 0 since the quest had been announced. Man, Quinn was scared out of her mind. Not just the quest- the voice too.

"Allo?" Whoever was on the other said before she got lost in thought. Quinn would know that voice in a crowd: Dad.

"Allo, Papa? C'est Quinn." She said, back in French. Dad was quiet for a second.

"Hey Quinn," he said. "Wow, what's going on? I haven't seen you since Christmas- is everything alright?"

"Yeah Dad. Everything's great. Is this a bad time?" She asked.

"No, no. Bakery's empty, and your grandmother's not around." Quinn smiled. Whenever she made contact with Dad, Grandma was a total hog. Phone, letter, any of it. Then her smile faded.

"Why did you call, IQ?" Dad asked. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Quinn said. Her mouth felt pasty.

"That's a pretty dishonest yeah." Dad said.

If Quinn would have been in Quebec right now, if she'd have been leaning across the counter of the bakery, he'd have pulled out a two bite brownie, topped it off with whip cream and handed it to Quinn. That always made her feel better. Then Dad could actually seriously talk to her without Quinn completely freaking out on him or losing it, and then he'd make her feel like there was no problem.

"Well… It is. Dishonest."

Quinn told him about everything happening in the mythological world that he was behind in. She told him about her sister Annabeth that was seriously smart, Piper in her cohort, Joan being a pain, Octavian being a snake… Then she told him about the Argo II.

Dad had always been so… So _understanding _about the demigod world and about facts like; demigods knew what they were doing even if it sounded delusional, and that yes, children weren't supposed to run around with sharp objects, but demigods should be encouraged to… But Quinn had _not _expected him to take this one quietly.

"When are you leaving?" He asked.

"I don't know. I'm not sure. In 3 days I think."

"Okay," Dad said. "Are you sleeping better? And don't try to lie to me, because you know I'll know."

Yeah. She did know. But Dad didn't know the full story. Nobody did. Not Cate, Jedediah, Josh… None of the people threatened by it… It was just one secret that Quinn couldn't say. Who knew- maybe the plague would transfer? Quinn shivered. She hated it, but if Jedediah started twisting and turning in his sleep… Or Cate… Or worst; if the voices went ahead and _put _their wide knowledge of witch hunt torture to practise…

"A bit," Quinn said. "But now it's just worry and stress. You know?"

"No I don't," Dad sighed. "But I trust you. Take care of yourself. And I'm not just talking about your sleep, the quest too. Come back in one piece, alright?"

"You're… You're letting me go?"

"Quinn; even if I went against the primordial fact that you are a demigod and demigods do these insane, heroic things… Well, I might be your father, but I'm not centurion or praetor. And when in Rome, do what the Romans do. You don't need me to say yes." Dad said. Quinn smiled on the other end- but she wasn't sure why she was smiling. Pride? Thankfulness? Fear? _Deliria?_

"But," Dad said. "I am still your father. So take care of yourself, come visit when you get back, if anybody gives you trouble I don't care what they are, I will beat them to pulp."

Quinn laughed. If only he knew…

"Okay Dad. Look, I'm running out of minutes here. I'll call you if there's any news. Love you."

"Love you too Quinn," he said.

And Quinn tried not to think about how that might be the last thing she heard Dad say when she hung up.

Annabeth

Annabeth lied down in the darkness. Yes, the digits on her watch were nearing 12:00, but how could she sleep? Even if she did try?

Octavian wasn't in the barrack. She'd woken up after a nightmare and realised that his bunk was empty, and she didn't know about the other centurion's, but maybe him too.

Which led to four questions from the daughter of Athena; where was he? With who was he? What was he doing? And how bad was it for her and the others?

Maybe Annabeth was being over-protective again, but she didn't think so. When someone who was your sworn enemy by reasons more than nature was missing in the dead of night when he really shouldn't be… Well, you tended to get a bit iffy.

Annabeth wasn't counting all the Romans in this. She appreciated that at least the whole fifth cohort trusted Jason more than anybody else, and had gathered Percy in their ranks, meaning that they trusted the Greeks. Reyna was just glad that Jason hadn't gotten hurt- and that proved something to her about Greeks. Leo had gotten a few people on his side with jokes and smiles in the third cohort. Meanwhile in the fourth cohort, Piper was slowly but surely growing out of Joan's grip and into the light- there had to be others like Quinn. But in the first legion? Annabeth was starting to doubt she could do anything but prove the worth of Greece. The brainwashing ran too deep for them. And so did the fear.

But when someone who would not give you a break –and she wasn't talking just physical wise, here- you didn't trust them.

Did you?

Frank

As if he'd missed Leo's bursting-into-flames during the war game. He didn't like Leo any less now; maybe he was a bit nervous and squirrelly around him now- which he didn't appreciate being any time. Leo had just held out his hand to take something from the table and Frank had shrunk back. It was so stupid! Yet his body seemed to be programmed to back away from fire.

But this officially meant that going on a magical quest across an ocean to go kill Mother Earth and a bunch of giants with a guy who burst into flames (as in 'fire') when he felt threatened.

Frank was _terrified._

But he figured that as long as Hazel had it… Hazel would always do better than him at everything she tried (except maybe transfiguration), so the stick –thus he- was safe. He could often see it push on the fabric of her pocket.

And to top it all off –because why on earth would this be made simple and easy- Octavian had forced a Senate meaning.

"I think that the boat's departure should be withheld." Octavian said. Whispers broke down around the room, going around like a snake in the grass.

"I know, I know," Octavian said fraternising with the people. "But I believe it would be in the best interest of Rome." _Rome's Augury_ Frank thought around in his head.

Piper got up and all that Frank could think of was _Showtime. _

"Octavian, with all due respect, if we delay this any longer the giants will run over Olympus, the doors of death will swing open even wider, Gaia will wake, and the world will end. Is that in the best interest of Rome?" She asked.

"Strategies can be postponed without disaster." Octavian said.

"Not this one." Piper said. The charmspeak didn't affect Octavian –more proof he wasn't listening- and he just went on (and on, and on, and on- oh wait, not yet).

"I believe that the quest members should be chosen more specifically." Octavian said. "Rome was after all a bigger empire- and an empire to start with. Our legionnaires should occupy a bigger portion of the crew."

"Octavian, Rome is the home of the gods, which is right now in the United States." Piper said. "Do you want to pick that fight with every Canadian here?"

Frank got up with all his 'I can beat you to heck (probably)' bulk and starred down at Octavian. From the corner of his eye, he saw that shy Quinn had gotten up as well.

"Do you Octavian?" Frank snarled. "My mom died fighting in Canada's army. I have some serious Canadian pride issues. You're not going to tell me I don't belong here because of said country."

"Of course not," Octavian said. Frank saw the gears turning as he tried to fix his screw up. Frank hadn't told people about his mom a lot, and so this big revelation from big Frank was shocking to Rome, and if Octavian was picking on the guy's dead mom- well gods forbid his reputation be wrecked.

Piper shot him a look of thank you and silent apology of having to interfere.

Octavian didn't answer but he was saved that when a huge Iris message appeared behind Percy and Reyna. Both of them got up and drew weapons on instinct. Frank realised he'd done the same thing- but there was nothing to fear. The two kids (twins?) in the screen were adjusting some kind of camera lens to have a straight picture.

"Hey it works!" The taller one said.

"Of course it works!" Someone in the back called out. "I designed it!"

"Wow, there sure are a lot of people…" The other twin said.

"It's the Roman senate Connor," Someone told Connor patiently. "Of _course _it's big."

"Now move out of the picture." Someone said a lot less patiently, pushing the two boys off screen. It was a tough looking girl with brown hair and mean, beady eyes, heavily armed. _Geez, wondered who her dad is_, Frank thought. She looked over at the senate before nodding in some kind of approval and getting out of the picture herself. Another figure slipped onscreen.

"Hello?" He said. It was a guy with sandy blond hair and grey eyes like dust bunnies. He wore glasses on the tip of his nose. "Is communication clear?"

"Of course it is, _I freaking designed this thing._" The same voice as earlier called.

"Shut up, Hammer Girl." The tough girl said.

"Roger that, Malcolm. We have visuals too." Annabeth said, standing up and talking to the kid like she'd done it every day.

"Oh. My name is Malcolm Goode, son of Athena, here at Camp Half-Blood. Percy, good to see you. And glad to know the Argo II landed fine. Nyssa and Jake were insomniac."

"Were not!" Two voices yelled out.

"Percy's alive?" The two twins got back into scene, and scurried the place with his eyes.

"There he is!" One of them said pointing to Percy. He sniggered. "And he's wearing a toga." He said like he was trying not to chuckle more. Like it was the most hilarious thing in the world. Okay, maybe it sort-of was.

"Clarisse, can you get them out of here?" Malcolm sighed.

"On it." Big tough girl grabbed a twin by the neck with each arm, and dragged them out even if they were digging heals in the ground.

She seemed to get a lot of approval amongst the Romans.

"Sorry about that. Connor and Travis are… Umm… Unique. They haven't been as disciplined since our camp director was recalled to Olympus; they're getting a bit more rebellious, gods help us."

"Camp director?" Larry asked.

"Yes," Malcolm said. "Bacchus."

"You have a Roman god as director?" Octavian said.

"No Octavian, but Malcolm here knows the Roman names." Annabeth said a bit like 'beat that'. Malcolm's eyes wandered from his sister to Octavian and he seemed to put that bit of speech into a file in his brain labeled 'people to watch out for since Annabeth is'.

"Right. I do, we've been reading and learning a lot about Rome." Malcolm said. "At least some of us have. And even while sworn to secrecy Jason was able to provide the most illuminating topics and information. And Nyssa concocted this device to permit the occasion of exchange of intellect and-"

"He means I made a communication machine." The girl backstage, who must be Nyssa, interrupted.

"Okay, call it what you want." Malcolm said.

"What's the problem, Malcolm?" Piper said.

"We're hitting some bumps at Camp. Our people in the states have seen Lincoln running around Texas, and Al Capone in Florida. Jonno just sent Freddie Mercury seven feet under, and Carmen Karen is tracking down Edison."

"Edison? Why kill Edison?" Someone gasped.

"Because he's been trying to make a light bulb bright enough to burn the world up." Malcolm said. "And… Well… That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's worst."

"What's worst?" Reyna asked. Malcolm gulped.

"Chiron doesn't want us talking, but…"

"What's wrong with Chiron?" Percy asked immediately. Malcolm gulped and there were no back-of-the-room comments from Camp Half-Blood's side. It was quiet. Frank felt the quiet like when the army official had come to his house when Mom died. That quiet between 'hi' and 'are you Frank Zhang?' The hairs on the back of his neck stood up straight even before Malcolm said it.

"He's dying."


	20. XX Annabeth, Quinn

XX

Annabeth

Looking at the logical side of things was all Annabeth could do to keep herself from bursting into tears or going into shock right there, right then, in the Roman senate.

"Malcolm," she forced the name out. "What do you mean?" Her fluency had sunk to zero.

"I mean… He's dying." Malcolm said, eyebrows knit. "The doors of death work both ways, see. They bring people out, and they suck people in. Chiron… Chiron's an old man. He should have died millions of years ago, if it weren't for the gods."

"Annabeth," Quinn asked softly. "Does y-your b-broth-er mean the _real_ Chiron?" The accent on Quinn's 'real' made Annabeth feel even more lost. The admiration she had by just what she'd heard or read about this mythical figure.

_Focus Chase, when has panicking ever helped?_

"Yes," Jason said. "The real Chiron, trainer of Achilles, Jason, and so many other great heroes."

He was the only one who knew Chiron personally that wasn't in total freak-out mode. Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Leo- they were all shocked solid. Annabeth shook like a leaf.

Chiron had plopped her on counters and bandaged scraped knees when she was a little girl. He'd explained to her what she hadn't understood from Thalia and Luke's quick, in the field explanation and taught her even more. He'd helped her become a better everything; a better fighter, a better learner, a better person…

She tried to keep it down, but when someone like that is dying, you don't.

"What do you mean, your trainer is Chiron?" Octavian said.

"Chiron is alive as long as half-bloods need him to teach. So it's normal that he stays around Camp to help us out. He's… I guess he's like Lupa's equivalent." Percy said. "Malcolm, what's happening about that?"

"Do you want to know what we want to happen or what's actually happening?" Malcolm asked.

"Both." Annabeth answered.

"Well, we want to keep Chiron safe. Preferably figure out a way to buy him more time. We need Chiron; you two are already gone," he said looking at Percy and Annabeth, "And Jason, and Mr D –although how much help he'd have been, I'm not too sure-, and we lost too many people last summer too, like Beckendorf and Si, Michael... We can't lose Chiron. If we lose Chiron we lose Camp."

"Okay, right." Leo said. "Geez..."

"So what's _actually _happening?" Piper asked. Malcolm scratched the top of his head.

"Chaos might be a strong word."

"No it isn't." Nyssa said from behind.

"Things aren't going well. We got a flock of new kids, and training them is hard when we're trying to keep the Argo II and everything alive at the same time." Malcolm said. "We're forcing Chiron to take it easy, and that's not helping either. Annabeth he… He _looks_ old."

Annabeth's stomach knotted up even tighter. An old Chiron. She'd never thought of him that way before. She knew the facts; but he'd never been an old man. He'd always been alive and present, and ready and there.

Percy asked. "Is anybody trying to take the lead? You know, have someone make sense?"

"The cabin leaders." Malcolm said. "We're trying. Well, Jake, Will, Clarisse, Rachel, Lou, Katie, Drew and I are trying."

"Drew?" Piper asked.

"Mm-hmm." Malcolm said. "Contrary to popular belief, she does care."

"Okay," Percy said. "How's it going?"

"Not great."

"Just try to keep people calm. Keep the regular schedule up; like, playing capture the flag and everything, so there's still some sense of normal." Percy said.

"Sure. But… That's not the main reason we called." Malcolm said. Great, the forest must've burnt down too, Annabeth thought.

"What's the other?"

A freckled redhead came into the camera screen, wearing a Camp shirt, already broken in with paint, over a long sleeved black shirt, and jeans poked with forks and decorated with graffiti.

"Hey guys. Hey Romans." She said. "I'm Rachel. The oracle of Delphi? Can I talk to your oracle?"

"We don't have oracles." Joan said murderously. Rachel's eyebrows shot up like 'well push-y'.

"Well, your prophetic person then." Rachel said, as if Joan was just another mean girl that didn't know how hard what she was biting off really was.

"That would be me," Octavian said, getting up like his name had been called in the Oscars. If he could disappear to Hollywood, that would work great for Annabeth too. "I am Octavian, augur of Rome."

"Great," Rachel said. Octavian frowned because Rachel's 'great- remind me to look that up' wasn't a usual reply to his title. Annabeth muttered to herself about how Rachel should know this stuff. "Look, I really need to know, have you been getting these?" She lifted up her sleeves to show a series of phrases written in… French? No, it was Latin, Annabeth recognised _mortum._

Death.

Oh great, Rachel was going all doomsday on them too. This couldn't be good.

"I… No," Octavian said. "Are those scars?"

"No," Rachel said like it was obvious. "They were visions. I had to write them somewhere, right? Anyways, Malcolm made a rough translation and it means…"

"Duplam mortem amans et pugnator," Annabeth said. "Double death by a lover and a fighter."

"Exactly. It was in Latin so I thought maybe someone here would have it. But… Guess not." Rachel said eyeing Octavian.

"I read the auguries," Octavian said. "If it doesn't come up it doesn't apply to Rome. So naturally, this counts as a problem for Camp Half-Blood."

"That's not the meaning of 'ally', Octavian." Piper said. Annabeth could feel the charmspeak buttering up an already solid argument.

"Well, what _have _you been getting from the auguries?" Jason asked. Octavian hesitated.

"I did not want to alarm anyone," Octavian said entering what Annabeth had come to call snake-charmer-mode. "But the auguries seem… Slightly twisted and obscure now. All I can obtain, time after time, is gibberish. Even after praying to Apollo, trying a new knife, trying other temples… Gibberish."

"What kind of gibberish?" Annabeth asked, an idea growing on her.

"I don't exactly remember, of course."

"You're required by Roman law to keep an account of all auguries." Reyna said strictly from her throne. She'd barely moved- like a praying mantis. "If you can't follow that simple order- I know people who can and will."

"Well, maybe I did write it down…" Octavian said, fumbling in his pocket for a notebook. Fluffy white stuffing fell out at the same time and Rachel frowned, incredibly puzzled. Annabeth nearly laughed at her friend's face.

He took it out and flipped at the last page. He read through some tough sounds that he had trouble making.

"That's not gibberish!" Percy said.

"It's Greek, isn't it?" Jason said, recognising a language he'd never been able to learn.

"It is!" Annabeth said. Her heart thumped as she translated the lines in her head. "It means…"

"Whatever it does, it doesn't matter to us. We're not Greek." Joan said.

"We've noticed," Rachel said pointedly.

"But you _are_ our allies. If it concerns us, it concerns you; just as what concerns Rome concerns us." Piper backed up. "Please Octavian."

Well that was new, saying please to Octavian. Annabeth knew that that wasn't their best move; doing so little to stop the hostilities with Octavian. It wasn't smart; they needed to get that guy down.

Octavian gave her his notebook and she looked them over.

"Rachel, you've got this?" Piper said.

"Yeah, I'm listening." She said, crossing her finger and taking a permanent marker from her back pocket.

"_Conquerors of flame and time shall fight the enemy under,_

_As above, rage unlocks weapons that armies flea,_

_Allies found in the most unusual place_

_Secrets revealed and never forgotten _

_Allies formed in the most surprising space _

_Double death by a fighter and a lover._

_And they all lived as happily as can be."_

"'Happily as can be' doesn't sound too promising." Leo said after a second of silence. But Annabeth's heart had skipped a beat. This was the second part of Ella's prophecy- of what she'd gotten from the sibylline books. Another snip of the old book. But she bit her tongue. She'd tell the others tonight.

"We'll _make_ it promising," Jason said. "But let's get 3 things clear: who are the allies, what's the weapon, and who are the fighter and the lover?"

"Personally, I see a lot of love going on in this room…" One of the Stolls said.

"Clarisse get the Stolls _out of the building_," Malcolm said. There was the sound of someone trying hard as heck to get out of a grip, and a door slamming.

"I don't think we'll be able to figure that out," Percy said.

"He's right. Prophecies take time." Rachel said. "Like, I thought I was going to get a 99% in math this semester, but turns out, I'm getting a 99% in university."

"Time's the one thing we don't have. Guess it wasn't included." Leo said. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Okay, well, congratulations Rachel on the future 99% in math, and I think we're done here."

"Not quite." Malcolm said. "Who's on the quest?"

They went over names and Quinn blushed as red as a tomato when her name was called. Annabeth gave her hand a squeeze.

"How's Annabeth getting back?" Malcolm sounded a bit relieved that she was coming back. She felt bad. She had to go back; she had to help them with their side of things and Chiron… She had to figure out how to help Chiron.

"I'll make my way, Malcolm. I'll ask my dad to book a plane or something; just to get back sooner than later."

"The boat leaves tonight at dawn." Octavian said. "It is expected for you to be gone at dawn too."

"We are a sanctuary for any demigod." Reyna said strictly, jumping to her feet in outrage. "Have you perhaps forgotten, Octavian? And if your barrack's ego takes the place reserved for her… Well, I live in a big house."

Octavian paled, and Annabeth got it. Reyna was always so cool and controlled and stone like. But suddenly she'd gone us like a flame and gasoline.

"As you say, Reyna." He said, like a puppy dog who was whimpering after getting a good 'no'. Give her a b, give her a u, giver her an l, make that two- what does that spell?

It made Annabeth mad. She'd been treated badly before. There were the monsters who were always trying to kill her, mean girls at school who tried to make her so small she'd be a compact half-blood, the people who touched her stuff and bugged her in minor ways… Then there were the people who backstabbed her like Luke. The titans who plotted against her and who used her as a weakness. Hera in so many ways.

But those people had always been honest that they wanted to hurt her. Brutally honest most times. Nobody had ever lied to Annabeth about mistreating her when it was so obvious, you'd see it from the moon.

This was even more infuriating and disturbing and distasteful in a way.

"I'll make the arrangements, Octavian." Annabeth said. "Don't worry about me, just keep ignoring me."

He looked at her and Annabeth kept a straight face. She wasn't trying to ridicule Octavian. Not anymore. He was ridiculing himself with his theatrics. But he needed to get a clue somehow.

"O-kay," Percy said. "That's it for today, I guess. Nice seeing you guys again."

"Nice seeing you too Percy. I have a bone to pick with you when you're at arm's reach, though." Rachel said.

"And nice meeting the rest of you," Malcolm said.

"With love from Camp Half-Blood," Rachel said cheekily. And the Iris message disappeared. Annabeth got up and so did Octavian.

He grabbed her shoulder and forced her to look at him. Oh Annabeth did _not _like that and Percy reached for a Riptide that wasn't there.

"Do you have a problem with me?" He asked.

"I think the better question at this point is do _you_ have a problem with _me_?" She said, looking him in the eye.

"Right now, I do." He said obviously angry, but wrestling to keep his cool.

"Then that answers your question," Annabeth was shakily cool now. "I have a problem with being treated like I'm nothing. I have a problem with being lied to about it. So my biggest problem is when those two things come together. And that's what you're doing, Octavian. But you're clever. So am I. By all logic; we should be friends. Tip Octavian; my mother is the goddess of clever. Learning, knowledge, intelligence... Clever means opening your eyes every once and a while and calling what you see by its name and not by what you thought it was. You must have heard about Hadrian allowing his beard to grow in respect to Greek culture."

"He was a mole of a Greek half-blood." Octavian said.

"He was a legacy of Ares, but a son of Jupiter." Annabeth said. She'd never heard herself so calm; not when she was dealing with the new kids, with Bobby and Matthew, or even Seaweed Brain himself. "A legacy, like you are."

"Shut up," Octavian said. Annabeth felt a weight dropped. He'd told her to get in line, he'd told her to stop arguing, he'd told her to stop using Ancient Greek words (which were undetected cuss)- but never had he told her to shut up. Never had he told her to stop thinking and pushing things forward. Never had he told her- or had she _even_ been told- to stop being herself.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "But I really thought there might be a chance. But that's it. Because _I don't shut up." _

And she left the senate before anybody else even moved a muscle, consumed in cold, chilling anger.

Quinn

She poked her head through the stable door and saw Ella perched on her own, with a Latin book in her hand. Quinn saw that it was the one she'd given Annabeth; either a steal or a lend on the harpy's part.

"Hey Ella," Quinn said. Ella looked up at Quinn.

"Quinn, Quintina, Five, Quintina Isabelle Hunter, daughter of Minerva, Québec, Thurso…"

"That's right," Quinn said. "And you're Ella. Where are you from?"

"Portland bad… Ella not like Portland, Portland has cheese and weed whackers."

"Sounds horrible." Quinn said.

"Yup, yup, yup, bad Portland. Bad voices." Quinn's eyebrow shot up.

"Did you say 'voices'?" She asked.

"Yup, yup, yup. Voice; sound produced in a person's larynx and uttered through the mouth, as speech or song."

"You know about my voices?" Quinn asked, her mind blown away. She'd been told about Ella's knowledge of the sibylline books somehow, but she hadn't realised that she was in it. That seemed like something too important for her to be in.

"Mysterious. Eerie. Dangerous. Hit single in 2007, Kardinal Ofishall. Autotune voice. Voices. Quinn knows voices. Voices are bad. Belong in Portland." Ella said, looking Quinn in the eyes.

"I agree," Quinn said sitting down next to the harpy, legs crossed. She didn't stutter around Ella. Maybe because the harpy was so plain and open. That didn't mean simple; but it meant that Quinn knew that Ella wouldn't talk about her to other people, Ella wouldn't laugh, Ella wouldn't use anything against her, or this, or that.

There was also certain queasiness about telling someone about it, like the pressure in her stomach and chest was easing. She'd never told anybody about it, never whispered it in the wind in case someone heard, never written it down in case someone read… It had always been her own secret, and she'd always thought she'd bring it to the grave.

"Do you know where they come from?" Quinn asked. The harpy shook her head frantically.

"What about you Ella? Where do you come from? Before Portland and the cheese." Quinn asked softly.

"Gods." Ella said.

"You were sent here by the gods?" Quinn asked. Maybe Ella was just referring to how Zeus had been the ones to assign the harpies to keep Phineas from eating.

"Gods. Singular; god; feminine; goddesses. One goddess, two goddesses, three goddesses, nope, no three goddesses." Ella said. Quinn just shrugged it off and tried to process that information.

"Where did you learn how to read, then?" Quinn asked.

"Books. Books have words. Words are good for harpy. Like Tyson and cinnamon and peanut butter and words. Ella like Tyson and cinnamon and words. And Quinn. Ella likes Quinn. Quinn likes Ella?"

"Yeah," Quinn said, reaching out and scratching Ella's feathery back. "Quinn likes Ella."

The stable door opened and Jedediah stood there with Josh, hauling a bucket of soapy water.

"Oh!" Jedediah said when he saw Quinn. "Umm, hi, I didn't know you were…"

"I'm not sup-supposed to be, umm, here." Quinn said. "Well, I'm not breaking any rules but, umm, Joan doesn't know…" She blushed red. That was not how you started a conversation.

"Doesn't matter, she doesn't need to know everything." Jedediah said. _Mars almighty, I wish. _

"You guys are on stable cleaning?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah," Josh said. "Lucky us. It's Adams' fault, if we'd have been on time at muster…"

"Don't blame me, you asked to switch helmets, and if only you'd have known where yours was…" Jedediah said shoving him. Josh shoved back and soap water dripped.

"I'll get out of your legs," Quinn said.

"See you at supper?" Jedediah asked.

"Yes," Quinn said. She hurried out quickly and Ella followed.

"Quinn likes more than Ella," the harpy said. Quinn shot her a look.

"Are you _always_ right?"


	21. XXI Jason, Percy, Quinn

**Okay; so this is where starts the bit of story I _haven't _posted on Fanpop. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>XXI<p>

Jason

"How did you know I was here?" Reyna said. Jason didn't even ask himself how she knew that he was standing at the entrance of the temple of Bellona. She'd learnt to recognise footsteps _somehow__, _with her hearing like a dog or a falcon's.

Aurum and Argentum quickly veered around and started growling at Jason. They just didn't like him- never had, never would. Not since the day Reyna had staggered through the borders with them and he'd tried to nail her, being on guard duty and all. They hung around Reyna's ankles as she stood up. She'd been writing something in the patch of dirt Bellona's temple was famous for with her finger. Jason couldn't make it out in the melee of different browns, blacks, oranges, even red in the patch. He didn't even try; that was for her to know.

"Because you're always here." Jason said.

"Predictable, am I?" Reyna asked.

"No," Jason said. "Routine."

"I don't have a routine for when you leave." Reyna said. He put an arm around her.

"That's because I try not to leave you," Jason said. "And you know I wouldn't if it wasn't even more important than all our other quests." Reyna nodded.

"But _someone's_ got to go save the world _again_," she said.

"It'll feel weird without you." Jason told her.

"And it'll feel weird knowing you're off killing monsters with nobody to remind you to watch your left side. Remember; because I want you to be the one who does the killing. Not the monster."

"I'll try," Jason joked. She shot him a look.

"If you don't try I'll kill you."

"You'll have to get in line." Jason teased.

"You laugh; but I will." Reyna said. She dropped her head on his shoulder and he kissed her forehead.

"It won't be long," he said. "Not again. You'll be okay on your own; Octavian knows that he's not messing with the praetor titles now."

"Send him an augury about it; then he'll remember." Reyna sneered. Yeah, well…

"You've fought off tougher than Octavian."

"He's not tough. He's clever."

"And you're what?"

"Street smart. Forget words and arguments and blah blah blah," Reyna said. Jason tried to think of what comfort he could bring her. Hylla's help? No; the Amazons weren't there, they'd just left earlier in the day. His help? He didn't see that happening and he rather not promise it at all than disappoint her. That would kill him. They were both going to need help on their two different roads, and Jason didn't see things interchanging.

"It doesn't matter," Reyna finally said. "You can't always be everywhere. Just stay with me tonight and I forgive you the last 8 months and whatever time to come is."

"Deal," Jason said, even if he'd have stayed with her for as long as he could anyways.

Percy

She was staring out into the ocean, her toes touching the water and her sneakers next to her, socks stuffed in. She was barely moving, and Percy wondered if she was trying to figure out the last digit of pie or the meaning of life or what. He was tempted to just leave the picture perfect moment of Annabeth thinking in the afternoon sun.

The idea of being separated from her again, after so many months, made him hurt. He'd felt so off on the quest, and the amnesia was only part of it. It'd felt off because the quest wasn't with or about Annabeth. He trusted Frank and Hazel with his life, but Annabeth was his lifeline.

"The dock? Really?" He said, sitting down next to her, not even bothering to take his shoes off.

"I've been to a lot of docks, Seaweed brain. They're near the ocean and they made me think of you. And that's all I had for eight months' time."

Percy drew her closer, and held his hand to her head, like he was protecting her. Annabeth let herself become small for that nanosecond.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I never really apologised for it. But I'm so sorry I worried you, I'm sorry you were on your own for eight months, I'm sorry I left when Camp was Hades, and that I didn't stay put on the quest, I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your idea," she said.

"It was Hera's, but she only did it because she had to. You get that right?"

"Yes," Annabeth said like this was old news.

"No sudden desires to turn against god-kind for that?" Percy checked.

"I'll let you know if I do," Annabeth said.

"You sound tired." Percy said.

"It's Octavian."

"What did he do to you?" Percy said his own voice a snarl.

"Nothing. He doesn't care. Percy- there's something holding Octavian back. There's something that makes him hate Greeks, there's just… Something more. Something backstage." Annabeth told him.

"I don't know Annabeth…"

"Well I do. Clever people never have easy reasons. It's always a calculation and like it or not- he [i]_is_[/i] clever." Annabeth insisted. Percy pushed a strand of hair behind her ears.

"What do you want to do?" He asked. That sent Annabeth into 5 seconds of intense thoughts.

"He's a legacy of Apollo, right?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes. You're talking with that I-have-an-idea voice that usually means I'm about to do something I won't like, like jump out as live bait or go to the library." Percy said. She ignored him and went on with her trail of thoughts.

"Which means that he has family in New Rome?"

"Oh you are not serious, Wise Girl."

"What's his last name?"

"Annabeth..?"

"What is it? Or do you want me to go ask Jason or Reyna?" Annabeth asked. Percy sighed. She wasn't going to give this one up.

"Dalton. His name is Octavian Dalton." Annabeth got up, dusted off her legs and picked up her sneakers.

"Well let's go find lucky Mrs. Dalton."

Quinn

Quinn put her bag on the sleeping bag that was going to be hers for the -weeks? Months- time to come.

Then at the foot.

Then at the end.

She was feeling restless, being in the Argo II, in a big common room that was going to be shared by everyone onboard. As far as she could figure out, her bag was next to Hazel Levesque's. Hazel wasn't why she was restless it was just… The boat in general. Going on a quest.

"All set?" Someone asked, sending her into a heart attack. She turned around to see Jedediah. Her heart turned around and did a couple of 360's too.

"Yeah," she said. Gods, had he seen her mess around with her bag? Quinn hoped not.

"Do you have enough books to last you the two weeks?" Jedediah asked, leaning on the doorframe. It wasn't a tease; it was serious.

"I'll reread." Quinn said. He smiled the smile that would make an ice princess melt for him. Quinn therefore had no chance.

"I'll walk you back to the barracks," he said. Quinn's heart drummed.

"Sure." She agreed.

She was shouldering him at the door when their hands brushed. Quinn resisted the urge to grab it, even if she wished nothing more.

The Argo II had 3 stories. The deck, the ground floor (which Quinn was sure no actual trireme had ever had), and then the mechanics and storage and spare parts (and basically Leo-land) at the bottom.

"Ladies first," he said when they got to the stairs. Quinn smiled at him and went up the narrow stairs that led to the dock. From the forum where the Argo II was docked, they could see New Rome spread out in front of them like a 3D map. Happy couples strolling in parks, cohorts lined up straight and doing push ups with all their armour on (ouch), people messing around, kids running after each other and yelling 'you're it!' All basked in sunset light.

Postcard material, Quinn thought. Screw the fluffy white cottages, this was what Quinn liked.

"Something tells me I'll never get tired of this." Jedediah said.

"The view?" Quinn asked.

"Being around you. Both." Jedediah said. "I'll miss you."

Her throat clogged up.

"I'll miss you too." Quinn said. Jedediah took her hand, and she smiled. Her breathing calmed itself. It felt right for a second to be standing there with him, walking off a giant boat and looking at a New Rome they both fought for.

_No!_ Quinn's walls jolted up, like a red beacon had lit up in her mind. _No, no, no, no- stop it! Stop it!_

She ripped her hand out of his frantically and staggered back. He looked at her hurt. His eyebrows scrunched up and his shoulders slouched. A flash of pain passed on his face.

"Quinn-" he said.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"I hope you are." Jedediah said. His face was hurt, which backfired on Quinn. "I'm not clever, Quinn. You are. You're incredibly clever. Stop playing mind games with me, because I don't get them. One second I think you actually like me-"

_I do! _Quinn's inside voice shouted.

_No,_ the realistic one said. _Let him think that._

Why could she just not say something with her real voice?

"-And then the next you pull away. I thought you liked me. I know _I_ really like you. But now, you win. Fine." Jedediah said.

_He'll get away for you. You won't have to do anything. No need to run from him if he does._

"Jedediah-" she said feeling her throat choke up. He walked away. He'd never walked away from her ever. His back was one thing she didn't know much about. Yet she didn't call his name; she didn't try to catch up.

Tears stung in Quinn's eyes. There. She'd hurt him.

She saw Leo, Jason and Piper walking towards the ship, Piper and Jason carrying a huge crate and Leo carrying cardboard boxes. She panicked and ran away from them, not sure where she was going.

It ended up being New Rome, as she dashed through the streets. Then she knew where she was going, when she froze and looked around. The sun was setting. _Great_, Quinn thought miserably, the emotions heating up and melting her walls like they were butter. _Tonight I'll get it._

"Quinn?"

She spun around to see Percy and Annabeth walking down New Rome holding hands. "Quinn, are you alright?"

"Yes," Quinn said probably too quickly. "The w-wind picked up when I was around sand. I… I g-got a bunch in my eyes."

Annabeth wasn't buying it. Quinn wouldn't have bought it either, but she balled her fists in her pockets. She didn't like to be seen crying. She would not cry.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "But don't be late to supper. Joan would love that too much for it to be good." Quinn nodded and started sprinting the second they walked past her, and only stopped when she got to the shop where the daughters of Trivia all hung out. The 'designated magical trials' area of the city- no, of the whole camp since magic was such a dangerous, rash and unpredictable thing with no heads or tails or patterns.

The bell jingled as she walked in, and she froze in the doorframe. Louisanne was glue to the ceiling by her feet, and she was looking at a spell book, probably trying to find a counter jinx to something. She took a look at Quinn and her face fell.

"You are not doing well." She said. "Cate? Cate… Cate Amjad, get over here!" Cate dropped down from the attick and Louisanne fell to the floor, before hiking back up.

"Quinn… Quinn what's wrong?" Cate asked, putting a hand on each of Quinn's shoulders. "Quintina Isabelle Hunter- you tell me right now!" She demanded.

So Quinn did. She told Cate about everything that had just happened; Jedediah taking her hand, Quinn feeling amazing, her instincts pulling her hand away and…

Wasn't' that what was supposed to happen anyways?

But that didn't mean she had to like it. That didn't mean she had to at all.


	22. XXII Leo, Annabeth

**Hi! Thanks for all the favourites and alerts and reviews of the past week, some of them really made my day and put one of those 'aww' smiles on my lips.**

**I just had a sudden thought; if anybody here wants to post the chapters from to fanpop, you're more than welcome to do so, but don't any of you feel obliged. And I invite you all to go stalk Burdge-Bug's blog because she's drawing Heroes of Olympus and we all know what that means! He he he... **

**And for those who don't know my usual drill from Fanpop; I post every Friday and on special holidays or when I finish a book I'm writing or my dad wins the lottery (it hasn't hapened yet; but it would be a good time to post). Even though I missed Christmas... Merry Christmas! ****Anyways, love you all and I respond to comments at the end!**

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><p>XXII<p>

Leo

Training flew by as usual for Leo.

His centurion Brady was a son of Mercury, so he was naturally easy-going. Brady liked his cohort, his cohort liked Brady- it worked out great. The cohort did anything he asked really. And that included Leo for the time being.

Which was one of two reasons why Leo was forcing himself to learn Latin even if he was out of this joint in no time. If he really thought about the words, sometimes they sounded vaguely English or Spanish, or at least a part of the word- like a prefix or a suffix or a middle part. Sometimes he had lucky guesses- but it didn't really matter because everyone seemed cool with his zero skills in Latin as long as he spoke in Ancient Greek for the last 10 minutes of language class. Or at least nobody was open about hating it.

The second reason was because he wanted to know what everyone was talking about. Sometimes he'd pass people in New Rome or whatever and they'd be talking Latin. Leo wanted to know what was up. Were they talking about the _Graecus_? Were they planning on pulling a Julius Caesar at the next senate meeting? Because Leo wanted in to see Octavian go _'et-tu, Brutus?'_

Brady repeated what Leo had said.

"Yeah, that's it." Leo said.

"And it means, 'the bunny stole my fork?'" Brady checked.

"Yes." Leo said. It was a necessity of the language. At least if you lived in the demigod world.

"Okay everyone- again- _to kounéli éklepse piroúni mou_." Brady repeated out loud.

The Lares shot Leo a dark look full or painful intentions as everyone tried to babble in Greek, but he had long ago accepted the fact that the Lares would hate him forever. He could start a list of those now- and the fun thing was they were all immortal (except Aunt Rosa), so the list might as well be immortalised in cement or something. Besides, he was secretly proud of himself. He had a whole cohort of romans sitting here trying to talk Ancient Greek. How was that for skills?

"Fantastic," Brady said. "Now in Latin…"

Everyone went again and a conch horn blew.

"Oh, 'kay guys, it's over. Knock yourselves out doing whatever; just don't be late at muster because I don't want to have to do mean things to you." Brady called.

Everyone scrambled out of the open pavilion where they studied Latin.

Brady hung back and passed a hand on an altar at the front.

"Brady?" Leo asked about to ask questions. He looked up.

"Come here," Brady said. Leo did, and Brady dusted off the altar.

"Look at this," he said. Leo took a look at the altar. There were some carvings smoothed out by time, chipped pieces and cracks.

"Yeah?"

"Look at the bottom- closely." Leo squinted and saw something that didn't belong at a Roman Camp.

"That's an omega," Leo said.

"Sure is. Last letter of the Greek alphabet, right?"

"Yup," Leo said. "What is it..?"

"I love ancient artefacts," Brady said. "I seriously do- I nearly had a heart attack when I saw this place at first. But this one does not look Roman."

"So it's Greek. What's it doing here?"

"That's why I'm interested in it. I think it's from the last time the Greeks and Romans met." Leo whistled.

"Old," he said. "How did it survive?"

Brady shrugged.

"But if you look even closer, you notice that the omega's a lock."

"A lock?"

Leo squinted closer and saw what looked like a hairline crack going through the omega. He put his thumb on it, and actually felt it pulsing like a heart. This'd been made by a child of Hephaestus. It was magic.

"That's cool," Leo said. "So it opens?"

"Looks like it. And I want to see what's inside, but I can't build the key, and I've never trusted the 'hey I found a Greek artefact!' pointer with anybody before. But you're Greek, and you're a cool guy. I know this is last minute since you're leaving soon but… Think you could build it?"

"I built a flying boat bro," Leo said. "An omega-shaped key? I can do that in my sleep. Let me get my tools and I'll be right back."

Leo actually sprinted to the barracks of the third legion. He had to pause to listen to a lame joke from Gabby –who was the youngest person in the legion- with his heart beating fast.

What was in the Greek altar? Nothing? Some more blueprints about the Argo II, dating back to the original one? Leo felt more excited than he had since landing in New Rome.

_No! _His inner self screamed. _Don't get excited! If you burst into flames you will most likely get killed!_

He took a deep breath. The great thing about three quarters of Camp Half-Blood's population being diagnosed with ADHD was that they'd gathered a collection of how-to-calm-down techniques from various teachers, special aids teachers, school psychologists, parent handbooks on 'managing your ADHD child' and whatever.

Already he wasn't all that happy of himself for bursting into flames during the war games. Curse instincts. They were supposed to be helpful, but last time Leo had checked, bursting into flames when you were in a no-flames-allowed situation was _not_ good.

Nobody had said anything about his fire abilities- maybe they were scared to bring it up. Except Octavian who'd picked at him during a senate meeting, but if the price of copper went down a quarter of a cent Octavian'd say something about it. But Leo was starting to feel it coming; like the fact he'd be gone soon was pushing them to a 'now or never; let's yell now!' feeling. His own cohort was acting strange around him and Leo didn't blame them. He was strange around himself (although the fire powers might not be the thing to blame for that one).

Once he'd laughed at Gabby's stupid corny joke (why did the Lares cross the road?), he pitched his armour on his bunk, tied his tool belt to his waist and ran off again.

Brady was still kneeling and trying to stare through the keyhole. Leo doubted this was a first for him.

"Watch and learn," Leo said kneeling next to the altar. He pulled some wires from his army jacket's pockets, snipped some ends with pliers and folded it to perfection. His hands did it like they had minds of their own.

When he was sure this was going to work, Leo got back up and tied a stronger wire to the omega. Holding it, he fitted it into the keyhole and heard a 'click'. Hairline cracks appeared, making a door and a handle emerged, and unfolded into a dragonhead.

"Are dragons or basilisks are going to fly out from this?" Leo worried.

"They wouldn't starved by now," Brady said. He took the handle and opened the door.

Brady ran his finger on the back of the box he picked up from it. He blew off some dust to reveal its craftsmanship.

"The keyhole is shaped like a heart," Leo said. "I could make another key."

"Maybe," Brady said. The box looked like a jewellery box- wood and the lid completely carved with carvings of an apple tree dotted with fruit, rocks and rose bushes. Apart from that, the rest of the box was completely smooth. It opened thanks to a heart shaped keyhole. What was up with weird keyholes?

"You can just make another one." Brady said.

"Nah," Leo said. It didn't feel right, anybody could make specialised keys, there was even mortal technology to do that.

"You don't think so?"

"It seems a tad repetitive. And this box was really well hidden- do you think it would be that easy?"

"I guess not." Brady said.

Brady was passing his long and nimble fingers all over the box, looking for some imperfection. Leo took a look inside the altar's secret compartment once more. There was nothing but cobwebs. Why was it so easy in movies?

He checked inside for it, he looked at the walls with a flashlight, a UV light; he even pulled out a metal detector. Leo found _nadda _and Brady wasn't doing much better.

"Switch?" Leo asked. Brady handed him the box and started patting down the altar.

Leo tried to pry open the box, he picked the lock; he even tried making another key. It melted in the lock. He tried to think about what Nyssa or Jake or his mom would do about this. He didn't come up with anything. Somehow he doubted this'd happened to any of them.

He made more keys out of different kinds of wires, but they all melted, even the ones who weren't supposed to melt at freakish temperatures, like, the sun.

"Melting again…" Leo said, waving a steaming, liquidy key through the air to cool it down. "Hey that's it!"

"What's it?"

"We're supposed to melt the lock!" Leo said.

"How do we do that without setting the wood on fire or something?" Brady asked. Leo froze.

"Look, I've got something to tell you, but you can't tell anybody. Well, they know anyways, but they don't need to know the details."

"Okay," Brady said. Travis and Connor Stoll were shameless gossips, and Leo was hoping Brady was different.

"I've got these powers with fire." Leo said. "It's really rare, and really dangerous."

Admitting it made Leo's heart ache.

"-but it's sometimes useful. I sort-of lost control during the war games but you know, confirmed now."

"So you can melt the lock, and only the lock." Brady said.

"I can try." Leo said.

"Go for it man, you can do it!" Brady said giving him a slap on the back. "Besides, I want to see some more of this fire junk. Sounds cool."

Leo touched his finger to the lock and thought about what he was trying to do. Not fire, not a blaze, not sparks, not nothing. Just heat. No need to incinerate Rome here, he was pretty sure that would be really bad.

He closed his eyes and prayed this was going to work without any apocalyptical side effects. It would be embarrassing to go down in history as the guy who set fire to Camp Jupiter and completely blew what Rome-Greece connections there were. Not that there would be a history to go down in if he did that.

"Leo, stop." Brady said. Leo froze thinking about what he'd done wrong and when his eyes snapped back open he saw that the metal was dripping on his hand and off the box completely.

Boo-yah!

Leo whipped his hand on his jeans and scrapped what molten metal was left off the box with pointy tools you'd see in dentists' offices (which was really encouraging for the next time Leo'd go there).

Brady flipped open the lock and the content was a few envelopes, yellow with time. They were each marked in either uneven scrawl, or neat cursive handwriting with one of the following sentances:

_To Jane_

_To Cedric_

Annabeth

Annabeth had trouble believing that her last night with Percy for who knew how long; and she was spending it trying to figure out Octavian. What a waste!

Yet she really felt it- she had to do it. Nobody was born evil. Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort, even Luke. It was some trauma, something that lacked in their lives, something in their minds… All of that could be changed, and Annabeth counted on it just as much as lunatics counted on 2012.

They asked for directions from a mother pushing a stroller with a cooing baby tucked safely inside.

"Brooke Dalton? She's right on Caesar Crescent, the house is small and made out of brick. She should be there right now, I saw her walking home not too long aog. You couldn't miss it."

"Thank you," Percy told the woman. And they made their way.

They must've walked by the turn five times, but they eventually got to where Octavian would've grown up. Annabeth rang the doorbell, not sure what to expect. A viper woman? Someone who didn't care?

The door opened to a woman with mid-neck blond hair, and blue eyes with smile lines. She was wearing jeans and a sky blue t-shirt, golden bracelets at her wrists. She looked younger than she probably was.

"Hello? Oh, Praetor Jackson." She said.

"Hi. Umm, you're Brooke Dalton?" Percy asked.

"Yes," she said.

"You're Octavian's mother?"

"Yes." Mrs. Dalton agreed thinking 'what's up, where's this going?' Annabeth didn't know if it was exactly the same thing with legacies, but demigod parents were often excluded from the planning and process of everything. And when they were, they usually went 'uh oh' no matter how much they knew.

"I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena; the wisdom goddess. Can we please talk to you?" Annabeth asked.

Her eyes darkened. "This doesn't look good." She said. "Come in."

The house was pretty small, but most of the ones in New Rome were. It wasn't lined with tacky homey decorations, but it was still comfortable. The living room had a warm fireplace, a bag of marshmallows abandoned on the stone floor bit surrounding it.

"Take a seat, can I get you two anything?" She offered as Annabeth sat down in an armchair, and Percy sat on the arm. "You must've missed supper if you're here."

"Seriously? Oh man, Jason and Reyna are going to kill me," Percy said.

"Worry about Reyna," Annabeth advised him.

"I always worry about Reyna killing me in my sleep." Percy muttered.

"-And no thank you. We just want to talk."

"What about?" Mrs. Dalton asked, sitting down on the couch and crossing her legs.

"About Octavian." Annabeth said. She had to measure this out- she didn't want to offend Mrs. Dalton by accusing her son of anything; she didn't want to say something that Octavian could possibly find out about. She had a feeling he wouldn't appreciate this.

"What about him? He's okay, isn't he?" She asked suddenly tensed.

"Yes," Percy said. "I suppose."

"At the moment he's… extremely anti-Greek." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth was in his cohort, and it didn't go very well."

"We were just wondering if there was any reason for that. Maybe something we could correct, or change, or a stereotype in particular we could prove wrong to him before we leave." Annabeth said.

"You must hear things from the fort," Percy said, "Especially if you were a legionnaire once. You've got to know that bad things are stirring and Greece and Rome must work together. It's getting hard, and if there's anything we can do, or that you can tell us..."

Mrs. Dalton sighed.

"Look, Octavian's not a half-blood. I am," Mrs. Dalton said outstretching her forearm to show a tattoo with 11 service bars. "He _shouldn't_ have inborn enemies in the first place, in all due respect, his roman blood and instincts as a legacy aren't something he inherited from his parents, it's something he grew into when he decided he wanted to be a legionnaire. So I don't know why he's like that if he is, because we've never told him any horor stories about the Greeks like some people do. His father was mortal, and I don't even use it; so he wouldn't even have grown up hearing '_Graecus' _as an insult. And I don't think I could do anything if I wanted to."

Annabeth's brain whized. This wasn't something that he'd grown up with, or had programed in with his instincts then. He'd started having this fear or repulsion of Greeks at the fort. What had changed between here and the fort? Had he seen himself as weaker because he was a legacy and had convinced himself he was at least a _bit _better than somebody by ranking the Greeks last? Had his first batch of friends there gotten this instinct?

"Do you see him often? Has he ever mentioned anyone?" She asked.

"Of course. I hear about this and that. Reyna Bell, Jason Grace, the kids in his cohort, Hazel Levesque, the Greeks…" She said, counting on her fingers. "He _does _have the gift of prophecy. Whatever people say, he does. He predicted death in the family once; at a young age. He voiced it a second before the person actually… Actually got hit." She shifted on her seat like the memory bothered her. "He knows things that unsettle him, and rightfully so. I hear about those too."

Annabeth was about to ask more, but Percy beat her to a question.

"Is that him?" Seaweed Brain asked pointing to a picture frame, hanging around the window. Mrs. Dalton looked up at the picture of a blond little kid running around in a park, caught in between a man and a woman that looked like Brooke but younger.

"Yes; when he was, oh, I don't know… Four." Mrs. Dalton said. Looking at her now, Annabeth saw that she didn't have a wedding ring. She did in the picture.

"Who took the picture?" Annabeth asked. Mrs. Dalton seemed uneasy when Annabeth asked and she nearly bit the words back.

"Claudia," she said. "My other daughter."

Annabeth and Percy exchanged glances. Octavian had a sister?

She knew she should be taking this more seriously than she was, but her mind was on Quinn, her own sister. That's just what she cared more about right now. She hadn't looked okay when they'd bumped into her. Hopefully Piper would catch that in the barracks tonight and talk to her about it once she'd have calmed. It might be worry, but Annabeth didn't think so. Something had seriously upset Quinn.

_Octavian, _her inside voice chided. _Focus. _

"So you have no idea why Octavian hates us?" Annabeth checked again.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Dalton said, sounding like she meant it too.

"No problem," Percy said. "We were just wondering if there was anything we can do."

"I can tell you he hasn't had it easy," Mrs. Dalton said. "But nothing like that. I expect you want me to stay out of it?"

"Please," Annabeth said. Mrs. Dalton met Annabeth's eye. Just then her eyes glowed a faint gold colour.

"You're smart," she said. "You'll make the right choices."

They flashed down to blue and she smiled.

"Can I help you in any other way?" She asked.

Annabeth and Percy crossed glances in a debate about bringing up the golden colour. Percy opened his mouth but Annabeth dug her nails into his hands to stop him.

"No," Annabeth said. "But thank you."

Mrs. Dalton walked them out and Annabeth's brain was buzzing with ideas and bits of information and stories and theories- like a cricket swarm.

The second the door closed Percy turned to Annabeth.

"The eyes… They were gold…" He said. Annabeth's stomach sunk a bit when she realised what he meant. _Kronos_.

"I don't think so," Annabeth said quickly. "Remember what Hazel told you about Octavian? That he was a legacy of Apollo, with the gift of prophecy? That's got to be inherited, right? Maybe… Maybe his mother is a seer too."

"Yeah," Percy said in that oh-yeah-that-makes-sense voice of his that made Annabeth feel victorious. "So what she told you- about making the right choices…"

"I guess," Annabeth shrugged. She was starting to think that a lot of pressure was being stacked on her shoulders right now. A prophecy in the Sibylline books –that wasn't anything right there, the _Sybilline books, _she and Malcolm had studied it intensely a few years ago!-, Juno directly talking to Percy about her, and now this.

Annabeth didn't believe in coincidences, no demigod did when you knew about prophecies and fates; and even less when one of your best friends was an oracle, and you'd already lived through prophecies. This _had_ to mean the spotlight would shift on her eventually.

"Don't worry," Percy said. "You'll make the right choices after all."

"Right is theoretical," Annabeth said. "Know how Lou Ellen joined Kronos before she rebelled mid-war and came back to Camp? Kronos was the right choice for _her_, but the wrong one for Olympus."

"And you're not Lou Ellen." Percy said. "Unless I'm making a horrible mistake right now."

"Shut up Seaweed brain." Annabeth said.

"Oh, no, definitely you." Percy teased. "So what do you think about Octavian?" He grabbed her hand because she'd been so distracted, she'd nearly walked into the street and gotten run over by a chariot in her distraction. The driver saw Percy and stopped, letting them pass. Another advantage of a man in a uniform...

"A million things," Annabeth said. "I'll figure it out. I have a plane ride and a few long weeks ahead of me."

"Right." Percy said. "I'm going to miss you so bad."

"Me too," Annabeth said.

"But we've got one more night." Percy offered.

"Come on then," she said taking his hand. "One more night."

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><p>She made Percy promise to wake her up before dawn, she promised to him that nothing was going to happen to her if he let her walk to the first cohort's barracks like a big girl, and so she was.<p>

"Annabeth." Someone said before she walked into the barrack. She recognised Reyna's voice before she turned around.

"Hey Reyna," she said.

Reyna nodded in acknowledgement. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure."

"Not here." Reyna said.

"Even surer." Annabeth said.

They walked up to Reyna's house. The lights in Jason's were out.

"I made him sleep early," Reyna said. "He usually paces all night before important things happen, worrying and thinking it through over and over, and praying to his father. But there is no way I'm letting him take off on a flying ship tired."

Reyna unlocked the door on a keyring she wore around her neck, on a purple band and let Annabeth in. They sat down on the couch in the atrium. "It hurts to see them go again, doesn't it?" Annabeth said. Reyna nodded.

"And it's weird," Reyna said. "I can't remember the last quest he's been a quest without me there."

"I know," Annabeth said. "It's a bit scary." Reyna shook her head and stopped. A smile crept on her lips.

"Maybe a bit." She admited.

"But that's not what you wanted to talk to me about." Annabeth said. Reyna met Annabeth's eye. She'd always been told her eyes were intimidating, and she'd recently figured out how that could happen and what that exactly meant. When she met Reyna and had seen _her _eyes.

"I just want you to know that you don't have to leave Camp Jupiter." Reyna said. "I know the Amazons already left this morning, and I'd understand if you want to, but you don't have to. I will protect you until I die if I have to, although I doubt it. Don't let Octavian or Joan or any of the others intimidate you. And don't say they don't because you're smart enough to calculate risks."

"I do see them," Annabeth admitted. "But I know they wouldn't hurt me. Not while you and Percy are praetors at least."

"Good," Reyna said. "Will you stay a bit longer?"

"No," Annabeth said. "You heard Malcolm- Chiron is dying. I need to go back and figure that out, and I need to fill the campers in New York in about Camp Jupiter. Jason was sworn to secrecy- we knew nothing."

"I thought so," Reyna said. "I just want you to know… There's always someone in charge of the mess that is Rome, so there's always a chance to get around it."

"Thank you," Annabeth said. "I'll remember that."

"You know the drill; if Octavian has a problem with passing curfew, he comes argue it out with me over breakfast." Reyna said. Annabeth grinned.

"Of course. Goodnight."

"You too."

The second her head touched the pillow and Annabeth's weight of the day crushed on top of her, Annabeth knew it wouldn't be a good night.

Maybe it was that- the weight of the day and the worry for tomorow's quest, and about Percy that made her unsettled. Maybe it was something more…

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><p><strong>Responses to Anonymous Reviews and Fanpop Comments<strong>

_**(which is more important than ever since I can't talk to most of you D:)**_

__ comment replies for anoonymous reviews by the Fanpop Forever Awesomes: luvseaweedbrain- this is SO not a "well rounded critique". My god, you make me laugh!

percy4forever- you made me feel warm and gusy too!

AnnabethGranger- :D

It's DMLIME from Fanpop- HI! And Quinn knows, but she's just afraid of how sensitive the curse might be. She cares too much about him to put him in danger (that explanation sounded better in my head...)

Fanpop:luvseaweedbrain- Love you too!

Percabethteam- I dunno about the forum, it depends if someone reposts what's on here to it, or if anybody leaves reviews for the chapters there...

Lt_Pupster- Nobody knows, it's part of the story.

losthero5- Pleases no HecateB, pleases no!


	23. XXIII Leo, Quinn

**Hey guys! Happy New Year's! I hope it's as good as the last , or if you had a bad year, better! **

**Anyways, this is one of the most important chapters after it passes Leo's bit, and I'm excited about your reactions!**

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><p><strong><em>Anonymous reviews<em> **

the-time-quake- Thanks! Back at all of you!

booklover64- I'm not ignoring you, how could I ignore you? I guess I thought you had an FF account and I'd responded by that. Hmm. Anyways, yes, I'm going to follow the 5-book outline of Rick Riordan. He wrote two, I'll write the last three, just like with The Son of Neptune.

DMLIME- Happy New Year's to you too!

Belieber99- You'll have to see where this goes :) And yeah, I know, my Hazel was different. But in that scary way, there were a few relations. Horses, curly hair, powers that are a plague, Leo... I was like o_O It was even worst when I found out about Reyna's parentage. _Then _I would have done a spittake if I had water.

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><p>XXIII<p>

Leo

Leo figured it must've been the strangest thing for the cohort to see their main centurion sit down and read in the hour of downtime the legion got in their barracks before curfew. Or Leo actually- that was new. People did this all the time? For fun? And they called Leo a freak…

They hadn't started reading the letters in the already open envelopes yet, not in the middle of the Latin lessons' pavilion. That didn't seem like a smart one. But inside the barrack where Brady ruled- go for it.

"Who the heck were these kids?" Leo asked.

"Who? Jane and Cedric? I don't know. Not all the camp's history is stored in my brain." Brady said. "They might have been average legionnaires."

"Should we seriously read these?"

"I guess."

"Don't you think they were locked up in that altar for a reason? To be forgotten and junk?"

"What is it with you, man?" Brady asked. "You didn't look so worried when you melted the lock."

"Shhh!" Leo said. He looked up but it didn't look like anybody heard, they were all doing whatever. And when Leo said 'whatever' he meant 'whatever'. Half of the cohort was attending a denarius football game; the other half was either trying to get an early start on sleep or gossiping some more. Two people were kissing in the corner of the room; this one kid was somehow dangling down from a bunk by the feet...

"Leo, we all know you're a fire user." Brady said. He surveyed Leo's face for a few seconds. "You're serious?" He said. "Extremely serious, you think we should legit leave this alone? No messing with me?"

"I…" Leo stuttered. "I don't want to bring the past back. It's not always good and with everything already happening…"

"You're being nostalgic." Brady said. He sighed. "But you might be right. I'll hint some clues at the praetors about this before we start reading, just in case Jane and Cedric were, like, delinquent necromancers."

"Delinquent necromancers?"

"Exactly." Brady said. "And they'll come back and help Gaia. You just never freaking know nowadays. We'll read it when you get back here. Somehow we'll figure it out."

He shut the box and slid it under his mattress.

"Lights out in five minutes!" He yelled out at the rest of the cohort, who all jumped now that there was an order, and the dangling kid fell.

Quinn

Quinn was going to cry. _Again. _Twice in a day must be some kind of record. She turned and turned. The voices had been basically handed ammo since Jedediah had turned his back on her. Not that Quinn was mad at him, not that she blamed him... She'd have done the same thing. Or at least she thought she would've. Gods- what was it like to be normal?

_Something you'll never know, Quintina Hunter. And nor will your father- you disrupted his life and put a halt on his efforts to get it together. Now you'll terminate it too. How do you sleep at night?_

The irony made Quinn feel beyond frustrated and even more broken. She flipped to her stomach, with the pillow pulled on top of her head. That didn't help. How did you fight things inside your own head? Could you?

_Not to mention everything else you break. Jedediah Adam's heart. Oh, if only you knew his fate Quinn, if only you did… You broke his heart and that's the first of everything. The beginning of the end, they say. And you brought it on him. Some love you are. Some person you are. _

Quinn was literally _biting _in her pillow so she wouldn't scream into the night at whatever had cursed her, whatever was plaguing her at 11:32 at night, and whoever's fault her whole life was.

_Do you break everything you touch or only the ones that you know will hurt the most?_

Suddenly the voices completely blacked out in her mind. Quinn was shocked and confused- until she was standing in a library. Well, that shocked and confused her too, but it also amazed her.

The room was round, with floor to ceiling shelves and big sunny windows letting in light. Star and moonlight. The books seemed to go from grocery store paperbacks, to encyclopaedias, to scrolls, to notebooks, to heavy leather bound books that were the kind monks had hand-transcribed a million years ago. Quinn itched to pick one up and read it. There was a series of desks with paper stacks, globes, maps and wooden schematics scattered on them, a few lights turned on. Quinn's breath caught.

"Hello Quinn," someone said. She turned around and saw a woman with ink black hair put up in a loose and quick braid, like hair was at the bottom of the to-do list. She wore the peasant clothes of a Roman, and the stories of her disguising herself with one of her million costumes that made people think that the last thing she was, was a goddess came back to Quinn. A sword hung at her side and her eyes were startlingly grey, bright and impressive. They struck a memory she'd been musing forever, but had only truly recognised once she saw Annabeth for the first time. The first time she'd recognised grey eyes.

"L-Lady Minerva," Quinn said. She started to kneel but Minerva waved her hand.

"This is no time for formalities Quinn, although I appreciate it. The other gods stay out of my library if they know what's good for them, but I cannot guarantee that this contact will stay secret." Minerva said. "Do you understand?"

Quinn nodded. The Greek delegation had shared what they knew about the gods' even more silent attitude. This was against Lord Jupiter's wishes and orders. Yet out of all the people on earth, Minerva –the almighty immortal and wise Minerva- contacted Quinn. That made her nervous.

"I know you have questions, Quinn. Questions about your past, you future, your present. But I can't answer them. I wish I could give you more answers than this, but they _will _come. Trust the fates, Quinn. There's a path created for you. All paths lead to something. 'What' is the only variable." Minerva said.

Trust the fates. Right; trust what got her into this mess. Well, logically, what got her in this, could get her out of it… So maybe Minerva had a point.

Quinn swallowed hard and looked at Minerva again. She hadn't changed at all since Quinn had seen her years ago. Her hairline, her eyes- it was like a mirror. Only her clothes had changed, since last time Quinn had seen the goddess she'd been trying not to stick out in Québec.

"Until then… This answer… Well, Ella is a fairly secretive harpy." Minerva said. Ella? What did the harpy have to do in this?

"My Lady –Mother- I d-d-don't'…"

"Just watch," Minerva said. She waited for a second before her eyes dawned on Quinn. "I'd put my money on you in this odyssey."

Suddenly Minerva disappeared and Quinn saw a younger looking goddess sitting at a table. The books looked older as well- no paperbacks, only scrolls and scraps, metal and wax plates, and papyrus. The goddess wore classic robes, with circlets tied to her biceps and wrists- except Quinn recognised the centerpiece of them as hidden compartments for small switchblades or vials.

A dashing red figure hobbled in.

"Message from Zeus, yep, yep, yep, Zeus has a message, _messenger, _for Athena_…_" The red feathers, the face, the babbling, it was all too familiar with Quinn. But she couldn't believe it.

The goddess looked and stood up. Suddenly Quinn noticed maybe a slight difference. Her hair curled like Annabeth's. And Ella had called the goddess Athena… She was watching her mother in a phase before the phase Quinn was born to. Like a past life.

"You have a message?" She asked.

"Yep, yep, yep." Ella said. She extended a leg and Athena walked towards the harpy, took the scroll tied to it and extended it to read. As she did so, Ella wandered around. She looked at the books and walked carefully on the desk, looking at the pages.

"Be careful- some of these books are survivors of..!" But Athena didn't need to continue. She realised what Quinn had; Ella knew the worth of a book. She also noticed the blank look of Ella as she looked down at a page.

"Can you read?" Athena asked. Ella shook her head. And the goddess' face relaxed completely, into something that could border pity.

"Words are not for harpy. No words for Ella. Messages for harpy, message for Athena."

"Words, are for everyone." Athena said. "Words are good. Good for everyone, even you, _Aella_."

Quinn recognised the ancient word for harpy. That's how Quinn had gotten her name?

Athena ripped up the scroll and a trail of words flew from it to the walls and they carved themselves in, joining themselves to others. She sat down at the desk Ella was perched on and took out a fresh piece of papyrus

"First;" Athena said. "You need to know the alphabet…"

Times had changed and the shelves seemed to be garnished more richly now. Ella trotted around on the floor looking around.

"Minerva?" Ella called. "Minerva? Wisdom, counterpart of Athena, Athens, capital of Greece, _Graecus_ in Latin, occupied by legio…" She muttered. She looked around some more and hoped on a chair before looking at the scroll laid out.

"Falling from ice the son of Neptune shall drown

Wisdom's daughter walks alone

The Mark of Athena burns through Rome…" She muttered as she read. The hairs stood up on the back of Quinn's neck.

"Conquerors of flame and time shall fight the enemy under,

As above, rage unlocks weapons that armies flea,

Allies found in the most unusual place

Secrets revealed and never forgotten

Allies formed in the most surprising space

Double death by a fighter and a lover.

And they all lived as happily as can be."

Quinn was shivering now- those had been Rachel Dare's exact words at the senate meeting.

"Ella!" Someone called. Minerva –Quinn could tell that the goddess had changed again- snatched the scroll with striking cobra speed and rolled it up. Ella made herself tiny, sheltering herself with her wing.

"Ella sorry- Ella no mean harm- Ella want words- Ella like words- words good for harpy- words good for everyone…"

"I'm not angered Ella," Minerva said. She seemed to go back to Athena- the goddess Ella knew best. "But I am worried now. Those scrolls were only for certain eyes, and you were not one of them. It could be dangerous now. _You_ could be dangerous."

"Ella no hurt."

"I'm sure you wouldn't," Athena said. "But sometimes people hurt more by being people than by being fighters. I'm going to have to protect you, okay? Mark you as my own. I'll place you under the protection of Athena. Is that okay, Ella?"

"Okay Minerva- Athena. Minerva Athena good to Ella. Words good to Ella. Minerva Athena give words to Ella." Ella said as the goddess waved her hand over Ella, the space between her fingers glowing yellow.

"And I will never regret it." The goddess said with a smile. "Go find the book we read yesterday, okay?" Athena encouraged the harpy, who took off towards the highest shelves with a flap of her wings.

Quinn sat up straight as a plank of wood, panting like she'd just ran a marathon.

No way. No, freaking way…

Quinn knew who the mark of Athena was.

And she also knew something was terribly wrong judging by the voices outside. What were they saying? "Get the..."

Suddenly she heard a muffled scream and spun around to see someone tackling Piper, stuffing something in her mouth, and she suddenly she got grabbed in a bear hug from behind, and she felt a gag pushed into her own mouth and muffle her screaming.


	24. XXIV Jason, Frank

**Hey! I feel mean for the cliffhanger, but the chapter is here now.**

**I also got a really good question; if Ella is the Mark of Athena, with the goddess' protection and so forth, how did she get mistreated by Phineas and everything?**

**Answer: She may have been starving and hurt, but that's not something that would have killed her. It was **_**on its way **_**to killing her; but so far she was still alive and she could pull through. If Phineas would've tried to shoot a gun to her chest, then we'd have had a problem, and Athena would've stepped in, and Phineas would've lost limbs. But Ella got help before it got that far. ****I hope that made sense in something other than my head… **

**Another point I want to bring up: I read one Mark of Athena story. _One. _It was excellent; but I was shocked when I realised that what's about to happen here also took place in hers, or at least a version of what you're about to see go down. I just wanted to make it clear that I acknowledge the differences; and I wrote this before I read the other fanfic, so this is just a case of 'a mind thought like a great mind'.**

**Anyways, here's your chapter, and anonymous replies are at the end!**

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><p>XXIV<p>

Jason

Reyna shook him awake.

It took a few seconds for his brain to connect the dots and register that he wasn't on some sort of quest or expedition- so the fact that she was waking him up in the middle of the night was probably really bad.

"Wake up!" Reyna muttered.

"I'm up- I'm up-" He said, pushing her arm aside and sitting up. He met her worried eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Octavian read the auguries," she said.

"Okay, you're going to have to be clearer on that because Octavian tends to do that a lot."

"He _knows about Piper_!" Reyna said.

"What about Piper?" Jason asked confused.

"Her charmspeak!" Reyna said. "Octavian found out and he thinks this was a conspiracy to put Rome in a… A cooperative trance or something! He thinks we were letting it happen to satisfy our own wishes, and he's accusing us of treachery. He's on his way!"

"What do you mean he's on his way?" Jason said, swinging his legs out of bed in a panic. He hadn't realised it but he'd fallen asleep fully dressed. He probably hadn't moved since Reyna had pinned him down on his bed, switched the lights off and posted one of her dogs to make sure he slept.

He tied his gladus to his side as Reyna went on.

"He has the fourth and first cohorts with him; they're marching through the fort! Jason, we're under _arrest._" Oh that was _not_ going well with her; he could see it in her eyes.

"Piper and Quinn are in Joan's cohort." Jason said shocked. Dang it- if either of them got hurt…

"You have to leave- now!" Reyna said.

"We have to get the others," Jason said. "We'll have to take the backdoor of this place, sneak behind the barracks…"

Reyna nodded.

She and Jason ran out the back door and made a huge loop. He saw a mob moving through the darkness, and his heartbeat went up. If Piper, Leo or Annabeth got hurt or incarcerated because of him, if Percy got killed by the Praetorian guard, or if Quinn lost her honours…

_No, _Jason thought. _Stop it from happening- come on, you led them here. You've got to lead them out. _

"I'll go to the fifth, you stay here and get Piper and Quinn out." He stopped running and kissed her on the cheek before sprinting off again. He wished he could say more, but there wasn't time, and his brain wasn't focused on her. She'd kill him if it was instead of being focused on kicking someone's butt and getting the crew out of here. Besides; he had a feeling this was as good as it'd possibly get.

It only took a few seconds later for him to reach the fifth cohort. Jason practically kicked down the locked door and flicked on the lights, pulling nearly every legionnaire from sleep.

"Hazel! Frank! Percy! We have to leave- _now!"_ He said.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Octavian's pulling a big one. He's going to try and bring down Greece. I'll explain later- no time. Frank! Hazel!"

Jason's heart was thumping. From what Reyna had told him on their way to the barracks; Octavian was going to the praetor's houses to try and blame them on letting the Greek spawn infiltrate Rome and gaining their trust with deviousness and unethical methods; charmspeak. That was treachery and even being accused of it made Jason lock his jaw in anger.

"Reyna's gone to get the others- get to the Argo II, and I'll find Valdez and meet you there. Be careful." Jason said.

Someone appeared at the front door of the barracks. Someone in full Roman armour.

"Freeze, don't move." He said. Jason recognised the kid; he was the last recruit before he'd been taken to Camp Half-Blood. Tony, son of Ceres- his father had been a legacy and a praetor; he'd gotten placed in the first cohort nearly right away with all his recommendation letters. Jason stepped forwards.

"I don't want to hurt you," Jason said. Tony's eyes sprawled- he'd obviously been expecting just the three from the cohort- probably until his reinforcements came in.

"My orders are to k-keep you here until-"

"I really don't want to hurt you."

"Hands b-behind your heads and on-on on your knees," Tony stuttered.

"Tony-"

"Now or I'll-"

Jason nailed him in the side with a roundhouse kick which threw him to the ground. He hit his head on the side of the bunk and didn't get up.

"Sorry, man." Jason said, _really _hoping he hadn't done anything permanent.

"Fifth cohort, armour on, lightning speed- we're heading out!" Dakota said, reaching to pick his helmet off the bedpost

"No Dakota!" Jason said. "You guys are going to have to stay here after we leave, and they'll already hate you because of us four. Stay low."

"What? This is bull, man! They're picking on you, three of our active members, one girlfriend –make that two girlfriends- _and_ our buddy Valdez!" Dakota said. "And let's not mention the whole Greek nation!"

"I know, but please?" Jason said. "I don't have time to argue with you, please just do it."

"Jason's right," Percy backed up.

"Fine," Dakota said. "But I don't like it."

"You don't have to." Jason said, patting his shoulder on his way out. "Fulminata!" He said.

"Fulminata!" They called back.

Gwen –who had come out of retirement to fill in the blank Centurion position Frank was occupying- went to open the backdoor for them. Reyna was already there with Quinn and Piper. Quinn looked dazed, like she wasn't all there- which wasn't like her.

"They're already at our houses, it won't take them long to figure out that we're not there. The lights are on, so that might fool them, but the lack of immediate response will set them off." Reyna said.

"Or when Tony doesn't go back," Frank muttered.

"What did you do to Tony?" Reyna asked Jason, turning her head to face him.

"Probably the same you did to Elliot," Piper said. She was rubbing her sword wrist- there were ugly red lines like rope burn. "It's not important right now."

"Right;" Jason said. "We've got to get to the ship and-"

"We're missing people," Percy said. He tapped Jason on the elbow. "What do you expect they'll do to Annabeth and Ella and Tyson once we leave?"

That was true. And Ella knew the Sibylline books- exactly what Octavian wanted the most… Harpies were hard to chain, but when you did… Jason was pretty sure Octavian would do it. And Tyson could be killed by the touch of any celestial bronze and sent back to Gaia- who knew if he'd ever come back as Tyson. And Annabeth… Well, enough said, it was Annabeth. They couldn't lose any of these people, or any people _period_.

Jason took a deep breath and turned to look at the people.

"Hazel, Frank- go get Ella and Tyson, and get them on that ship no matter what." Jason said. "Percy and I will go find Annabeth. Piper, Leo, Quinn- you three get back to the Argo II. Defend it, check for bugs or vandalism, and get it ready for the rest of us. If they're coming at you too thickly, save yourselves, take off."

This wasn't a dictator moment. This was a _we need a plan; we don't have time to all agree, let's go _moment, and Jason hoped the others got that.

"I want to go with Hazel and Frank; I know how to get Ella onboard!" Quinn said. Jason was a bit startled at that; Quinn was usually incredibly quiet and shy- but she sounded so sure and confident now.

"Alright, go." Jason said.

"Jason," Reyna said looking at him. "I'll go distract the legion. I can guarantee ten minutes, but you need to take off before that."

"Okay," Jason said suddenly scared even just a bit. Reyna was going to play into Octavian's hands. She was going to be prisoner again, and knowing her… It got his stomach into knots. And he saw that she didn't like the idea any more than he did, it might even _scare _her deep down. It did scare her.

She was the bravest person he knew.

"Just go save the world or I'll see you in Hades and kill you then," She said before running off again. For the last time, Jason thought.

He and Percy risked going into Open Street.

"5 bucks she isn't at the barracks anymore," Jason whispered to Percy.

"Maybe with guards, but they wouldn't try to move her." Percy said. "It's been tried, and generally thwarted. Besides, any other ideas?"

"Nope." Jason said. And they had a clock counting down ten minutes.

So they ran to the barracks and plastered themselves to one side of the door each and listened. It was quiet, but that didn't mean anything. Percy was going to move towards the doorway, but Jason held up his hand to stop him. Quiet and discreet until they were sure…

"Nobody's home," Percy said. He opened the door and stepped in. They saw two legionnaires unconscient on the floor, and it'd have been three if Percy would've been any slower. Two hands engulfed in silver armour came out of nowhere, and Percy ducked, Jason brought his gladus up to keep them from going down. Percy got up from under and had Riptide at the guy's throat, before she hissed.

"Shh! It's me!"

Frank

Ella was perched on the beam of the barn, Hazel was giving Frank a dirty look, Quinn was quiet, and Frank was trying to figure out what to do.

Phase 1 had gone fine, they'd managed to get in and out of New Rome. Mostly because Frank pretended to be Hannibal and he walked around, hiding Quinn and Hazel from the crowd at the praetors' houses. He had no idea what Reyna was planning on.

Frank had made the error of saying 'quest' and Ella was completely resistant to leaving after that. Not even Hazel's soothing worked to get the bundle of red feathers Ella had become out of the stable corner. He doubted charmspeak and a bag filled with gold would.

Even Tyson tried but Ella kept saying 'no, sorry, said not to, nope, Ella not to do it, Ella not to quest'.

"Those are instructions," Quinn said.

"Instructions?" Hazel asked confused. It made about as much sense to Frank but Quinn nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "Frank, give me a boost." She requested. He did, and she jumped and grabbed onto the wooden beam with the agility of a monkey. She pulled herself to a position where she looked Ella in the face seriously. She repositioned her glasses.

"Ella, I'm a daughter of Minerva. You're under p-protection are-aren't you? She said no quests?"

"Athena, the sixth of the twelve Olympians- Athens- Athens Ohioh, _We have an hour and a half to go. Then we'll reach Athens. Then we'll find Henri. We drive south until, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Athens comes into view: a small city sprouting through the trees, _page 225, I am Number Four_…_" Ella muttered.

"Yeah- I know," Quinn said. "I'm Minerva's daughter. I'm her mark too. I can protect you, but you have to come. If you stay, you won't be protected. She wouldn't want that- Athena wouldn't want that. You understand that, don't you?

Frank was about to say 'no'. Ella had looked at her like she'd just opened a whole new book on a subject she'd never even_ heard_ of.

"_Mark of Athena burn through Rome_."

"That's you, Ella." Quinn said. "Somehow… But you can't stay here. Or… Or there'll be no mark of Athena."

Gingerly, Ella unfolded her wings and nodded. She said yes in about sixteen languages, and fluttered down to the ground, where she perched on Tyson's shoulder. It was odd that she was small enough to do that.

Quinn looked down and took a deep breath and let herself fall. She landed like a cat, and straightened up.

"Quinn what was-"

It was like Quinn didn't hear her, she just looked at them both.

"W-we have to get to the sh-ship." She said. Hazel and Frank exchanged looks, but they ran back out.

Jason

"Annabeth?" They both asked confused. She took off the helmet.

"But… The rope scraps on the floor…" Jason said.

"How did you do that?" Percy asked. She looked over her shoulder at the rope scraps on the floor, and the knocked out legionnaires that'd been guarding her.

"I honestly have no idea." Annabeth said. "But stealing armour is freaking easy once you get the legionnaire down."

"Note to self," Jason muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Hey- Octavian melted down mine in the dead of night, Grace, I needed something!" She said. "Luckily I kept my main pieces on the Argo II, and I sleep with my knife."

"That's not creepy," Percy said.

They backed out of the cabin quickly, and Annabeth took a bobby pin from her hair and locked the door behind them like she'd done it a million times. It was probably the only reason she owned bobby pins.

"That'll keep thing 1 and thing 2 busy," she said. "What's the game plan?"

"We're making a run for it," Jason said as the three of them ran down the road.

"I know what Octavian's doing, he doesn't know how to tell if people are sleeping or not," Annabeth cut.

"Hazel, Frank and Quinn are gone to get Ella and Tyson; Piper and Valdez are setting up the boat."

They ran out of the fort and jogged down to New Rome. They were a few feet away from the Pomeranian lines when Jason got scared that Terminus would start yelling at them and get attention.

"Don't slow down! Run in the name of freaking Pluto- run!" Terminus yelled at them once they got to the border.

Well, okay.

They got to the Argo II and saw that Hazel, Quinn and Frank were already back with Ella and Tyson, and they were hanging onto the boat, Quinn was flicking the switches Valdez told her to identify.

"Yo bro- hurry up!" Leo yelled down at them. A few lights were turning on around New Rome, and people were poking their heads out of their houses to see what was wrong or complain to each other.

_Ladies and gentlemen we apologise for the late night disturbance caused by trying to save the mission before Octavian screws it up, which would then be followed by the apocalypse. Please accept our deepest apologies._

There was a sound like those claws in videogames, and a metal staircase flopped down. Jason passed Annabeth and Percy before him, and jumped, letting the wind bring him to a higher jump than the others could.

"Let's make some air, bros!" Leo said. And with that the boat took off like a helicopter, at first hovering over the spot, and then tilting up like a plane, sending them all scrambling to hold on to something to avoid dying. Ella took flight and hovered.

"_Your seat cushion can be used for flotation, and it the event of an emergency landing, please take them with our compliments." _She muttered, which Jason didn't consider helpful (or reassuring) right then. He grabbed onto Hazel's wrist so she didn't fall over the edges, and the boat finally stabilised itself, and flew off.

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><p><span>Replies from the Anonymous or not-logged-on<span>

kayce- I do think Ella's going to play a big part in the real series :)

percy4forever- No, it won't, don't worry. Percy's safe from at least that. And I'm sorry, she really is… What was your theory again?

YES I do think of Phineas and Ferb every time I hear that! I'm always expecting a platypus to come out!

GoLDeNHeArTz- Thanks! And I'm glad someone is!

Goatly Powers- Yo you! I liked hearing that :) And I think someone is going to repost the chapters in the forum (which means I get to answer reviews from there too- yahoo!)

Anonymous Reviewer in Chapter 1- I hope you get to see this. I doubt you'll read this far in since you really didn't seem to enjoy this, but you weren't logged on, so this is the best I can do to reply.

Okay; my explanation for Reyna's slight OOC; I _needed _Reyna to talk more in this story. And her situation has changed since The Son of Neptune. She has to cooperate now, and part of that is opening herself up and being friendly because someone has to show the example of Greek interaction. I think she can put that before herself. Also; Piper and Annabeth became her friends in the series; which meant she _would _talk to them. And of course talking to Jason just had to happen. Percy didn't start off as her friend, so of course she wouldn't be open much in SoN to him.

Grammar and Spelling: I am shamed every time I reread The Son of Neptune. I admit that was poor reviewing skills; I changed the PoV and I missed a few tweaks turning 'he' to 'I' and changing verbs and so forth. For so many various reasons; and the grammar and spelling would be one of them. But I hope you know that…

I'm Canadian so words like 'color' become 'colour' and other things like that

I'm also French by first language, so writing dialogue was taught to me by '-'since I'm in third grade or so, and it was changed to these "" during later books when I realised that you couldn't pull it off in English

I am in no way saying that spelling is not a major issue, or that my first language gives me a right to have horrible English.

I also want to make it clear that I bust my head every chapter I post in every story when it comes to reviewing. If you'd look at the original version of a chapter, and what's actually on … I'm the only one reviewing, so it gets tricky at times, but I do my best. I don't just write and post- I never have done that, and I never will.

As for bringing in Quinn… Quinn was brought in because I do believe that we haven't met all of the demigods yet. So in my version; new characters come up all the time. And other new characters will be brought in later on, I've already grown very attached to them (since they're planned out already). They won't be handed enormous parts, nor was Quinn, but I will add original characters. It's something I enjoy doing, it adds my touch to the story and makes it different from the other Mark of Athena stories, and the feedback I get about the OC are appreciation; a lot of people actually like Quinn. I don't see how it's a problem, personally. So my 'only strength' doesn't have a major flaw; or at least not _that _as its major flaw.

Four: the four books after The Son of Neptune on my Fanpop version were written with more thought than the first, they were written with more emotion than the first book… If you were to look at the comments in the 100's, you'd see people who cried reading it (I did make it rather sad), and I did get praise that my grammar was getting better.

I accept your CC, I thank you for it; but I just want to give you some advice back. One day you'll leave a review like this, and it might be perfectly okay CC as well, but you are going to have it deleted and you will be yelled back at by someone who can't take it. It may just be a part of who you are, I'm cool with that, but some people just don't get it, and won't take your constructive criticism well.

Hecate


	25. XXV Reyna

**Before you start reading I insist on sending you to two places:**

**1) Rick Riordan's blog Myth and Mystery because there are details for the third Kane Chronicles' books and for DEMIGOD DIARIES! Yeah man! We are getting a book! Before freaking fall! Boo-yah! (Okay, so it's in August... Still!) So far the content seems to revolve around a pre-Camp Thalia and Luke story, a Percy and Annabeth _on a Percy first person POV date _that Hermes (dang it Hermes- it took 5 books and you just come ruin it) interupts because he needs something, and a _Leo Valdez story of building the Argo II_with something bad happening where Jason and Piper are needed_. _**

**Which means that we get our dose of genuine Percy/Annabeth Romance and Quest, and that I get my dose of Leo before fall. My, my, my the morning was good...**

**2) Burdge-Bug's Deviant Art and Tumblr called the Afterlife. I feel bad sending her traffic, but there are Percy and Reyna [in togas :O] pictures and reunion comics you must see.**

**I'm also on my way to post on my other two chapter-length stories... Yeah, that took a while, I'm sorry. ****Other than that, enjoy! **

**PS- Thanks to DMLIME for posting on Fanpop.**

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><p>XXV<p>

Reyna

She figured that Octavian had about the same patience as Blackbeard had, so he'd blow any second now. She'd learned that when she _was _betraying direct instructions, she had to measure the patience she'd be given so she wouldn't go that one step too far.

"In the name of Rome- we order you to get out!" Joan bellowed.

_She_ was worse than Blackbeard on the other hand, and that got Reyna to speed up. She tossed the pen on her bed, and rolled up the book page she'd had to rip out.

Reyna gave Aurum and Argentum a rub on the top of the head, and attached the note to Aurum's collar.

"Follow the scent, boys." She told Argentum, letting him sniff one of Jason's Camp Half-Blood shirts. Hopefully they'd go there, and not where Jason was going. If not…

No; her dogs would make it. Besides, they hated water more than Jason did- because of rusting and short-circuiting and so forth. They wouldn't follow the Argo II where it was going.

"Don't you try to save me- don't you try to protect me. You've been good dogs, but you can't help me with this, okay?" She whispered. "I'm not even going to try and win this."

Aurum whimpered, like he didn't like what Reyna was implying. Smart dog; she didn't like it either.

She let them out the back door and they ran off into the darkness.

Okay: go time.

She walked out of her house and locked the door behind her before turning to face Octavian, Joan, and the two cohorts behind them. She also spotted the second cohort in the melee.

Usually she'd just get to the point, but she'd promised ten minutes. Reyna didn't break her promises, even if this was going to be hard.

"Can I help you?" She said. "You're out of bed in the middle of the night, that's worth push ups."

"We're here to complain against the treatment of Romans by Greeks," Octavian declared. The three cohorts behind him cheered- 1, 2 and 4. Reyna saw 3 and 5 peeking out from their barracks; 5 in rage and admirations, 3 in confusion. As long as they stayed quiet and there were no civil battles here…

"Why is that?" Reyna said. "It should be the opposite; especially with the soldier you were to take in Octavian. Don't get me started on you, Joan."

"Piper and Annabeth are taken care of," Joan sneered in such an 'I know I'm victorious' way, Reyna felt disappointed. Children of war should know better.

"Oh yeah?" Reyna said. "Okay…"

She was stumped.

"Okay you explain to me what this mistreatment is." Reyna said.

Octavian stepped up and one of Circe's favourite quotes popped to mind. 'If you want something spoken of, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman'. She hadn't thought about that in a while.

"The daughter of Aphrodite was a charmspeaker," Octavian said. "It's a rare ability, but I've been able to pinpoint a daughter in the legion with the power."

"Nelly Hope Olsen." Reyna said.

"Yes," Octavian said. "The Greeks forced Rome into cooperation."

"No," Reyna said. "I know what being charmed is like. And it's nothing like I am right now. Right now I just think that we need to tighten alliances with the Greeks to make sure Gaia doesn't win this war, and I think you should go back to bed. All of you."

A few legionnaires shifted.

"We don't need Greek allies," Joan said. "They were easily defeated."

"Really, Joan?" Reyna said. Here's the thing; Bellona and Mars were married as two war gods. So that made Joan her stepsister, and she was the one Reyna would least like being around. Joann shot her a threatening look that didn't make her flinch.

"Really Reyna." Joan said.

"So you explain that one to me." She said pointing her finger in the direction of New Rome.

Everyone turned around to watch as the Argo II took off in the night. Reyna had to stop herself from smiling. They were gone- they were safe. Or at least from Octavian. But there were other monsters out there…

Octavian turned back to her, his eyes shooting lightning and _fulminata _deluxe. "You have let our enemies escape," he said.

"I've let innocent allies do their mission," Reyna said. "It's your jobs to check the bodies before proclaiming someone dead!"

"The legion's majority has decreed that you have no more business carrying the title of praetor," Octavian said, waving her aside.

"What a shame," Reyna said. She knew she was going down with the ship- but nobody had said that she couldn't cuss on her way to Davy Jones' locker.

"You may come quietly," Octavian said as Joan motioned for four of the strongest legionnaires to step up. They did. She immediately caught hold of all their identities and strengths and specialties just by a simple look at their posture, or recognising them under their helmets.

Reyna was suddenly filled with an instinct and a hunger for survival and fight- one that had kept her alive a million times. It was something she'd never been able to tone down, and she'd learnt that usually when it showed up –in a battle, on the pirate ship, faced with Polybotes- it was there for a reason and shouldn't be toned down.

"If you attack me, I will fight back, Octavian." Reyna said poising herself.

"We'll see," Joan said as the four legionnaires ganged up on Reyna. She drew a sword and assessed their weapons- they each had a Pilum, sword, and their _purgio. _Times four- most were bigger and stronger than her. She'd compensate in skill; but she had to make sure she was not disarmed.

The first one came at her and Reyna reacted quicker than his stroke- she managed to land a blow to his sword hand –which weakened it- and then strike the sword too hard at its weakest spot and had it flying out.

She spun around just as time to block Two's sword and she raised her arm to block Three's sword as well- the blade wasn't felt through the length of cotton she had wrapped around her arm. Not getting into bed clothes after practise was paying off tonight.

She pushed Two back and his sword went under the arm holding Three's blade to hit it. She untangled her arms and kicked backwards- from where she'd heard One come back. She must've hit him in the most sensitive point of the male anatomy- because she heard a squeal of pain and a stagger back.

Four took his place and she managed to whack Reyna in the back with the butt of her Pilum. Reyna was bent in two towards the other two, and one of them quickly got behind her, hooking his arms in hers at a painful angle that Reyna didn't register as painful.

_He was standing too straight, not solid enough._

She, in turn, hooked her feet around his ankles and threw her weight towards him. He fell back and Reyna rolled and got up, not particularly careful where her feet stepped on. She scooped up his weapons and swung the Pilum in a wide circle to push everyone back. She wasn't panting nearly as much as the legionnaires- but she'd learnt that on the pirate ship. If they didn't think you were tired, and they felt exhausted it discouraged them. It made them more tired. And if you didn't think you were tired; you had a fight. Your mind was a weapon that not even Vulcan could make.

"Stop. You don't believe in what you're fighting for."

Two and Four apparently didn't think so.

They tried to circle Reyna and before Reyna could register a thing, Two behind her moved.

She spun around to face him and just as she started to pivot, she knew it was a trick.

Four charged at her in her back, got her in a bear hug and let her weight drop to the ground, except she whipped Reyna to the side and landed on top of her. This was one of Hylla's favourite wrestling moves- she _should _be able to get out of this… but Two crushed his weight on her as well and he tied her hands behind her back, yanking her arms violently.

Reyna tried to roll on her back to keep her hands free, but two legionnaires were literally _on _her and making sure she couldn't move an inch.

With one legionnaire lying across her, another holding her arms while the third one tied them together; Reyna Bell was captured.

* * *

><p>Luvseaweedbrain- I was biting my tongue everyone would be like 'what? So Annabeth's not going?' And yes, terms of endearment make me go 'urgh' Thank you :)<p>

DMLIME- I'm sure you are :P Thank you! And I really miss my OC's from that… Hazel and Gwen especially, although Dakota and Bobby and Carmen and I-wish-I'd-done-a-better-job-on-Zane… It's okay, now I'm working on the guys from here :D

Goatlypowers- :D THANKS!

Percy4forever- Perry! We had a PLATYPUS phase at my elementary school thanks to him… I saw plushies at Disney and I wanted to hug each and every single one of them. Read I Am Number Four- you will not regret. ~ MusicReadWrite25- Yeah! I listened to Banana Pancakes again… Anonymous- I want to give you all those chocolate biscotti things my mom's Italian friend gave us! Aww! Thanks, that was sweet and it made me warm and bubbly and happy inside :)

I hate Mary Sue's, man! I always base my characters and find 1 big flaw I can branch things from because no OC of mine will be Mary-Sue!

I miss writing Hazel Ducharme, and writing the dream was one of my favourite things EVER! I actually really like Sammy/Hazel (which is awkward because Frank/Hazel is not hated on my side either), but this time its going to be different. There's a lot more time to it in my next book.

Oh, and if I stop writing, you'll have to buy your plane ticket for RUSSIA because I am sure there's a crazy shack in the middle of the tundra that my friends would send me to if I did. I love my friends :D

Forever scripting, (:D)

Hecate

Sorry- *cocks head to one side* Well okay! Sure! Thanks! And I'm pretty okay with flames. I poke them with sticks and make marshmallows: P


	26. Frank, Quinn, Jason

**Oh my gosh- before last chapter! And because the last one is so short, you get both today. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, HoO, its characters, future names, or world. **

* * *

><p>XXVI<p>

Frank

Frank crumpled against the side of the ship's railing only when San Francisco was out of view and they were done tumbling around trying to get themselves straight up.

"That was…" He said.

Jason was proceeding to kicking a crate of food and then walking around full circle on deck before kicking it again. Frank might have met Jason only two weeks ago; but he knew this was foreign behaviour for the guy.

"Jason, stop it." Piper said. He did, but he wasn't calmed down one bit. He looked locked inside his own emotions, inside his own head.

"What set them off?" She asked. "Why tonight?"

"You," Jason said, calmer than Frank expected him to talk.

"Me?" Piper said shocked, her kaleidoscope eyes sprawled.

"They found out you could charmspeak," Annabeth said, "Octavian and his only friends the stuffed toys. So naturally any form of alliance we might've established was fake and against Rome's will. Or at least now that's what they think."

"But I… I've barely charmspoken!" Piper said. "Barely, I swear! I said it was just going to be in emergencies!"

"We know Piper," Leo said. "It's not your fault." Frank noticed a wooden box at his feet- he wondered what that was about.

"Oh gods- this is my fault." Piper said crumpling down at the foot of the mast and holding her head in her hands. "Joan's always hated me, I should've played her game or- or- I should've just told them I could charmspeak from the beginning and sworn on the river Styx not to or- or… Aww…"

"No, it's not anybody's fault. The important thing is that we got out," Percy said. Then his face twisted a bit. "Well…"

"She'll be okay." Hazel said. She got up and touched Jason's arm to get him to look at her. "She's Reyna Bell. She doesn't let people take her down easily and the whole legion wouldn't make her break a sweat."

"Thanks Hazel," Jason said. But he didn't believe it. Reyna had always plain scared the life out of Frank, but now he was scared for her. Who knew what Octavian would do with her now? He was pretty sure she was safe from at least public stoning or execution; but that was it.

Quinn

Quinn just watched Ella mumble to herself, perched on the railing as the ship flew through the air. Her voices changed topics from the aerodynamic body types of birds to the percentage of Christmas tree fires in Mississippi. Athena must have _some _library. She couldn't believe that the prophecy wasn't about her or Annabeth or one of their sisters after all- it was about Ella.

Events backtracked in Quinn's mind- what might have happened if Quinn hadn't been on the ship.

She could have stayed behind and she'd have helped Reyna fight (or at least the brave part of her thought it might've).

Dad wouldn't be worried right now.

She wouldn't be taking place and supplies from the Argo II's rations.

She'd never had been on the ship where she'd seen Jedediah's hurt face… Quinn pushed the flashback of his face away.

_That would've happened anyways Quintina Hunter; this is your entire fault. It's all part of your aura, wherever you are bad things happen. _

She wouldn't be assisting to a conversation she couldn't understand over the suddenly delirious and hostile voices.

But one small thing sparked her mood; and that was that Ella probably wouldn't have made it out of the city.

Thinking back on it, she should bring it up and explain. Frank and Hazel were already very confused about it, and she had a feeling the only reason she hadn't had to answer questions was because running for their lives must've had that effect on Frank and Hazel.

"I have something to tell you." She said quietly. These people were all warriors one way or another so they all heard her straight away. Quinn suddenly got uneasy- what if she was wrong?

_Yes; deception and false-leading, you just keep adding to your portfolio, don't you? Oh no- misleading is already one. Don't you remember the disappointment in those bright green eyes..?_

She wasn't wrong.

"I just found out, I- I had a dream- l-literally j-just if I had- if I had known, umm, s-sooner, I would have told- told you but, umm, it's…"

"Quinn," Annabeth said. "Don't worry; just take a deep breath. Tell us, what is it?"

"I…" Suddenly Quinn froze up. Was she supposed to tell them she'd met Minerva in a dream? It probably wouldn't help the goddess' case, but Quinn had to tell them about Ella. She had to.

"I was in my- my- my mother's study. Umm… Minerva?"

"Okay," Leo said. He blinked a few times and everyone else looked a bit like 'hmm, well will you look at that- a god talking to her kid'.

"She… She d-didn't s-say much," Quinn suddenly realised that maybe, there was something she'd wanted to hear from the goddess... Maybe advice about where everything was going, answers…

_There's a path created for you. All paths lead to something. 'What' is the only variable._

What had Quinn expected- answers? This was the goddess of knowledge and battle strategy. If Quinn couldn't analyse and figure out her own way out of trouble- she deserved that trouble, as far as Minerva was concerned. The gods never made it easy, but Minerva didn't even consider you deserved help if you needed more than you got. It was unforgiving, but at the same time, it was how Quinn had learnt to make things happen and how she'd learnt and operated her whole life. With what she had and didn't have.

"B-but she sh-showed me a memory." Quinn said.

"What do you mean a memory?" Percy asked.

"M-Minerva t-taught Ella how to read. She… She was one of Zeus' m-messengers. As Athena the goddess… adopted Ella, I- umm- I guess. Taught her how to r-read when she re-realised Ella c- Ella couldn't."

Annabeth's face melted into a mask of 'oh…' and realisation.

"And then… And then as M-Minerva, Ella, umm… Minerva had a… copy of the S-S-Sibylline books in her, I mean Minerva's, library. And… Ella r-read them while Minerva wasn't, umm, when she was absent. A-Athena protected Ella b-because she didn't, didn't want her to be h-harmed. She -Ella- is the Mark of Athena."

Everyone's faces did the same as Annabeth's had and a few heads turned towards Ella who wasn't babbling. She met all of their eyes like 'yep, Quinn's right, yep, yep, yep'.

"So you… Or Annabeth… Aren't the Marks of Athena?" Percy asked.

"No," Quinn said. She was scared they'd throw her out.

"Then there's another reason why you're here." Frank said. "You aren't just here because, or 'cause there was a mistake."

Quinn wasn't so sure, but believing that made her feel better about being here.

_Until your comfort kills someone,_ a voice told her.

Jason

Nobody looked all there or bright and early, yet none of them could fall asleep.

They stayed on deck until sunrise, telling lame jokes, and talking about stuff that didn't matter. Jason tried not to look too distant, he didn't want anybody else to get their heads out of the game, but he kept thinking back to Reyna. What Octavian might do to her… And how it'd hurt her twice as bad because of who she was… He could see it coming and he didn't like it. Just the idea that Octavian would lay a hand on her…

Jason felt like kicking the fruit crate again because it deserved it.

But he still booed at Leo's jokes and told Frank that his weren't much better anyways.

They broke out breakfast when Frank's watch told them it was about eight. Tyson needed more calories than the average human, even more than the average demigod, and he hadn't been included in the rations. Nor had Ella and her appetite was just as bad because she was a harpy. They'd have to figure something out. Jason was thinking fish, but he'd have to ask Percy about it.

He dozed off sometime in the morning, at the peak of the ship. It wasn't like he'd slept much before Reyna had woken him up.

He saw a huge, familiar, cage with clay bars. The top made a dome, like a canary cage. One kid was sitting in the center, his lip bloody and clothes dusty. There was an old Asian woman with a scary glare in her eyes. And a girl in silver with blue eyes that was ramming her shoulder into the cage's bars.

"Thalia, stop it." Nico called. "It's no use, we've been trying forever." Thalia rammed in one more time before turning around to look at him.

"If we'd been trying forever, we'd be out of here by now Nico di Angelo!" Thalia said. "I've been doing this since December and I'm still at it- so get up and whip your skinny little shoulder against this cage!"

Nico knew what was good for him and went to do it.

"Mrs. Zhang, can you please try shape shifting again?" Thalia asked.

"It's no use girl!" The older woman said.

"Please," Thalia said. "We have to get out of here- you know what's happening, don't you?"

"Yes I do, don't they teach you how to recognise demigod blood anymore? I can feel it in me that it won't work. If I feel like I belong in my body it's because it's mine and it's not going to change."

Thalia accepted that and looked around.

"Where did Sammy go?" She asked.

"He's not here anymore," Nico asked whipping himself against the bars.

"What do you mean he isn't here?"

"He left again, to do something."

"You'd think he'd get help." Thalia muttered.

"He can't interfere with the human world he's not part of it." Nico said.

"Well if you're such a know-it-all about these ghosts maybe you should summon them for help!"

"If I could I would've done that by now," Nico argued.

"Stop it- you are arguing like children." Mrs. Zhang said. "Children do not get out of the earth's hold."

_The earth shall take what the seven want, _Jason thought grimly. Thalia, Nico, Mrs. Zhang.

He woke up when people were agitated.

Piper let him know that at some point, Ella had just dived down. None of them were too sure what to do, but Tyson told them to wait.

Ten minutes or so later Ella came back with books in her claws and hands and mouths. If Ella wouldn't be friendly, it would have looked like they were being attacked by education.

She spat out the books in her mouth. "Yucky. Words are yucky." Ella said.

"I agree." Percy said. Annabeth smacked him, and she, Quinn and Hazel started going through the books together (although Hazel's implication was probably more out of sympathy for the harpy because Hazel was as dyslexic as the next demigod and hadn't ever gotten diagnosis or proper help for it).

Ella had gone with variety. There was something on Egypt (Jason hoped more than anything that she wasn't giving them a sign from the future with that book), something that accompanied the Harry Potter series, 'Walt Disney and Orlando for Dummies', some Judy Bloom, a French Tintin book, and something called 'The Monsters are Due on Maple Street'. From what Quinn and Annabeth's trivia was a radio play from the time of black and white television, part of the Twilight Zone.

_The monsters are due over Kentucky if that's where we are, _Jason thought. _This isn't going to be a smooth ride._

Or better yet, the monsters are due in New Rome.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Anonymous<strong>_

Richasa- Glad you enjoyed!

DMLIME- by four people more heavily armed than her… There has to be _something _out there that can get her.

emily- Thanks!

_**From Fanpop-** _

JosephineSilver - :D

GreekRULES- No! I have no clue! If anybody does, can I please know? I mean, I didn't swear, or post mean comments, or abuse the site or any of their violations! *sigh* Well, I'm glad you liked it! And I have a solution for Jason _and _Piper already, so…


	27. XXVII Reyna

**Hey, last chapter! Thanks for sticking around for it, whether you've been following my stories since Fanpop, or just now! I really appreciate it! I also apologise for the OOC that you might find, but Achilles had his heel, some guy in the Bible (I think it was) got a haircut, Percy has that one spot in his back; so Reyna...**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

* * *

><p>XXVII<p>

Reyna

She was thrown against the wall of the dungeon by the legionnaires, and she tried to charge back out, but they had her held well. They'd gotten the note that she didn't like being captured, and she was usually feisty about it apparently.

They forced her arms up and tied heavy copper chains around her wrists, which held her arms up like a crucifix might. She didn't beg or cuss, she was not going to even consider herself descending to that. The legionnaires left, slamming the door shut, and the usual panic immediately engulfed her- starting small and eating her whole.

Her heart started beating like a drum as she accessed the small cell and the smooth walls, with no windows or even a crack. It was such a small sealed place. Reyna wouldn't be able to stand up and swing a sword properly in this thing. The walls started closing in on her-

_No, _she thought. _They are not closing on you- get a grip!_

She couldn't shake off the fact this place was small- so much like the pirate ship… She half-expected to feel the cat' o nine tails, or a hot iron rod come at her out of the dark. She half expected to hear Hylla scream in pain or, or... Her heartbeat increased, she started sweating.

Yes, Reyna was claustrophobic.

Out of all the stupid fears in the world, out of all the things that could come bouncing out at her- all the things that she actually _had_ to fight, and no matter how many heads they had… Four small walls did her in. She led armies but she didn't breathe right when there was no way out and the space was limited.

But so would you if you'd been tortured, cued in on a whole new demigod world, beaten, teased about losing your sister and robbed of everything in a small space. Because that's what had happened to her. Whatever idea about being captured by pirates you might've gotten- it was bull. _That_ was what happened to you.

And she had a bad feeling that it was happening all over again.

* * *

><p><span>The End<span>

9:42 PM, 12/1/011

6:41 AM, 13/1/012

Forever scripting,

Hecate

* * *

><p><strong>Next book, same place, next Friday: <strong>The Books of Tartarus


	28. The Books of Tartarus I

Sorry I'm late! My whole week's been a timebomb of crazy, and Friday was the same. Plus my Internet was dumb, my brother got a turn on the laptop and shut it down and it was later revealed that I hadn't saved the corrected to-post version- it was a whole thing. Won't happen again! (hopefully)

**Title: The Books of Tartarus **  
><strong>Rating: C  K+**  
><strong>Type: Adventure, friendshipromance, humour if I'm really good at this, touch of tragedy (more like 'sad') **  
><strong>Characters: <em>On the Argo II: <em>Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Quinn Hunter, and two mysterious creatures**

**_In Rome: _Reyna Bell, Octavian Dalton (I gave them surnames for the heck of it), and Joan Golan**

**_At Camp: _Nyssa Montgomerry, Malcolm Goode, Drew Arthurs (last name alert)**

Synopsis: Not everybody managed to flee New Rome, but Jason has to push thoughts of Reyna aside and try to keep things calm on the Argo II. The pieces keep adding to the puzzle they're all part of and between clashes, rivalries, dreams, gods, powers and newcomers; Jason and Percy are starting to wonder if there'll be time left to save the world. But then again, isn't that what the dreams, newcomers and gods are all up to?  
>Disclaimer: The story base, character and settings base was created by Rick Riordan, who owns the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Heroes of Olympus rights.<p>

* * *

><p>I<p>

Leo

July 7th

She tightened the cloak around her shoulders as she walked, a bunch of people scrambling after her to keep up.

"The sooner we get this done the sooner it's over," she said shaking her hair from her face. It fell down her back like a jet black veil. He suddenly got a better look at her face. It was simple and plain, nothing much, nothing odd. Her eyes were a nice brown colour, but way too cold to be compared to anything like chocolate.

She scowled and pushed through the doors, walking into what was an earlier version of the Principia. No jelly bean bowl, no electronics sprawled across it. War maps took the space, with little flags and blocs to mark troops and forts and territory won or owned. The forts were either purple or orange. The people hovering around the table in a cluster immediately all tried to talk to her at once.

"Jane- Jane- no, Jane- this is important-"

"A message came in from-"

"According to the third cohort in-"

"The Greeks are running out of ammo on the borderline here, do we send in troops to do them in?"

"Jane- this'll only take a…"

"Not now," the girl who must be Jane said with a wave of her hand as if to brush everyone away. Everyone basically jumped out of the way of her hand. "I have business to attend to."

She descended into the dungeon, lit by torchlight. Guards stood like stone statues at every two cells. No- they _were _stone.

Jane and her party froze.

"Leave," she said. "I'll be able to handle myself."

"But Jane the prisoner is-" A guy started. The firelight allowed a glimpse of his thin face, his mop of black hair and how his dark eyes squinted when he talked.

"Behind bars. I'm a big girl, Edmund." Jane promised. She waited for the party to head up the stairs and the door to shut before walking to the other end of the cell hall. It wasn't very large; it had 4 rooms on each side and only 2 were used. No- 3- Jane stood in front of the one in the back.

"Declare yourself," she demanded. "Who are you?"

"Well," the guy in the cell said, "That's an interesting question. Who am I? Am I a servant of god? A servant of the country?" His face looked completely serious as he said that. His amber eyes stayed serious, and there was a special spark in them. His brown hair was shaggy and there was just something about him that made you think the guy wasn't normal. Other than the fact he was wearing bronze armour.

"Quit the act," Jane said. "You're not mortal."

"Oh- what was your first clue? The armour? The fact I'm here? Oh, I know- maybe it was the sword." The guy said.

Jane scratched a match against the wall.

"The light's going to burn through this wood. You have until then to convince me not to do it." Jane said.

"Well, it would hurt me. Second, imagine if it took out my eye, or traumatised me. How would you torture me for information then? Thirdly it would seem quiet cruel- but I suppose it would build up the tough girl act you have going on." Cedric chatted on.

"Act?" Jane said.

"Yes; about sums it up, don't you think?"

"I'm not convinced," Jane said. The flame was nearly touching her fingertips.

"Alright: my name is Cedric Bailey," he said.

Leo woke up. He always woke up at the exciting parts of dreams.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around the ship. He was in the rowing section. The edges of rows stuck out from the wall and rotated as they rowed (thanks to some butt kicking child-of-Hephaestus engineering, Leo might add). It was also where everyone slept. They'd decorated it with make-do flags with their immortal parents' icons on it. Hammer, dove, flash of lightning, trident, owl, olive branch, spear, this little doodle dude thing that represented Pluto… Their bags were pretty much sprawled in the limited area (triremes were built small, skinny and speedy; sort of like Leo), and so were their sleeping bags, making a circle with their feet in the center.

Everyone was still asleep. Percy and Annabeth held hands from their sleeping bags; Quinn was bundled up at the bottom of her sleeping bag. Jason was barely moving, so he was possibly dead. Piper was on her side, her arms under her head as a pillow. Frank was snoring like a freight train- which didn't bother anybody now-, Ella had her head under a wing and she was perched where Tyson had made his own bed with some dried seaweed. Supposedly it was like what he slept on at Poseidon's palace, and Percy defended it was pretty comfortable. Leo wasn't so sure.

Wait- one person was missing…

Leo rubbed the sleep from his eyes and got to his feet. Plus it was the person who was supposed to have wake him up a few hours ago for guard shift…

He climbed up on deck and was nearly blinded by how bright the sun was, and how much it bounced off the sea. He spotted Hazel sitting on a crate near the railing, the breeze messing up her curly, cinnamon toast hair.

"You doing okay?" Leo asked. She turned around.

"I'm not green am I?" She asked, pushing her hair behind her ear. She was a really seasick person, and so far, the time they'd spent on the sea had been horrible for her. The last days had been her throwing up over the railing and Percy insisting that the sea was polluted enough as it was, and Hazel hitting him, and someone ending up ducking under deck not to laugh.

"The Grinch would be disappointed," Leo promised.

"The who?" She asked. Every now and then Leo forgot that even if she looked younger than him she was 60-some years older according to history and archives. And then he made a reference to something everybody knew –like popular Christmas characters with bad attitudes- and she was confused like he'd spoken Rachel-tongue.

_Thanks for that warning Nico, _Leo thought. _How 'bout you tell us next time you take advantage of the doors of Hades busting open to bail out people?_

"It's a green guy in Christmas movies. He's klepto and he doesn't like Christmas." Leo said. "Oh, never mind." He sat at the bar of the Argo II and checked the GPS. They were right on course.

"I sort of had to move the bar earlier," Hazel said. "Forgive me for touching your controls."

"Just because you're you," Leo said. Hazel laughed and looked back at sea.

"You know, when you're not throwing up into it; the ocean is great." Hazel said. "I sort of get Percy. It never ends. We could be here forever. You know, never go to war with Gaia, never face another giant…"

"That's not happening," Leo said. "Running away… It happens. But it never works."

"Coast is clear." Hazel said.

"One day you stop running and everything catches up." Leo said.

He always woke up at the exciting parts of dreams. Yeah, well, sometimes- that was a _good_ thing.

Like when he was outside the workshop watching the firefighters run around and try to get in and out- which he'd missed while being passed out. He woke up before they pulled Mom's body out. He woke up before Aunt Rosa got to the violent part of her argument with the social worker about Leo's custody. And even if he didn't get there- it still scared Leo. It made old scars tingle and demons stir.

Hazel looked troubled, she played with her hair.

"Leo, speaking of things catching up to you, I-"

"Chatoyant- like a cat's eye- feline-felinae- cat- Cat in the hat- Doctor Seus..."

They both turned to see Ella and Tyson climb –hop in a bird-lady's case- above deck. Ella stretched her wings and let the sea breeze fill them and took off, flying a wide circle above deck as soon as she could.

"Good morning, bon matin. Sweet dreams- Sweet Dreams, British pop duo Eurythmics, released in 1983…"

"Yes Ella," Hazel said patiently. "What about you?"

"Ella is well- good. Cinnamon good. Tyson good. Words good." She said before taking off even higher.

"Good job Tyson, you just got bumped up above 'words'." Percy said, emerging from the boat too. "Took me years." Tyson blushed.

"Shut up Seaweed brain." Annabeth said, following him.

"And sometimes we're still not sure," Jason teased. Percy shoved him and Jason shoved back.

"How about a 'good morning' before things get lethal?" Hazel said.

"Good morning." They both said at the same time before going off to spare. Hazel rolled her eyes either because of 'boys' or 'cousins'. Leo didn't quite hear what she muttered.

"Sleep well? No psycho dreams, godsend info?" Annabeth asked everyone up, propping herself up on the railing.

"Nope." Leo lied. "Good as new."

Hazel looked at him like she didn't believe him. He admitted to being a pretty transparent person, but it was freaky how that girl could read him. Like she'd known him for months or years rather than days- and Leo wasn't used to anything like that since he hadn't stayed at one place for months or years.

Morning rolled by as usual. When Leo headed down it was revealed that Quinn had been up since four in the morning reading a book on genetics, and that Frank and Piper were awake too, and playing checkers-rock-paper-scissors (which was a game Leo hoped you'd never be bored enough to discover). Frank was getting creamed, and he was thankful for the escape even if it meant going to the kitchen area to try and achieve food. Even if Leo was there.

Frank was a cool guy –don't get Leo wrong- but he seemed to skirt away Leo for some reason and Leo just stood there like 'great, what now?' He had no idea what he'd done wrong or what he'd said that would make Frank-

Wait…

Fire. That's what.

Leo remembered the first week after being back from the quest. He remembered waking up and wondering if a mob would be standing at his bedside, telling him that he was now officially too dangerous to be around human beings. He'd had a nightmare about Nyssa and a pitchfork, that he would probably need therapy for. But instead, they were so… Chill. No pun intended- but that was Leo's best word.

Harley and Kit grabbed his hand and dragged him to where they'd tried their latest versions of this or that. Dominique and Elyse would kiss him on the cheek whenever he'd open the bunker as quick thanks before they wrapped their hands around tools they wouldn't put down for the day. He, Jake, Shane and Christopher were shoving and messing with each other like they'd known each other for ages. Nyssa pushed him around like she had official rights on him as tyranic sister. The only time they ever mentioned certain combusting powers was when they needed bunker 9 open, something melted quick, or a distraction during capture the flag (fireball running through the forest worked well; but the nymphs were so ticked at him afterwards, it was barely worth it).

Outside that little bubble; he'd nearly forgotten what a menace he was. But the second he'd left Camp and gotten to Camp Jupiter, he'd sworn he wouldn't even give them the material to accuse him. He liked the sense of _belonging_ too much to risk losing it. Gaia hadn't been polite enough to resist the urge to send him nightmares by the steroidal truckload, and he suspected that Brady just really liked Leo and was ready to leave him alone; but he'd forgotten that to some people, fire was a menace. And even people who didn't know the power's harsh history (hint: burning down London, setting fire to Joan of Arc's burning pyre, et cetera) felt something just _wrong _about it. Something wrong and twisted about Leo (well…)

Frank was just one of them and Leo was going to have to suck it up and take it. He'd been taking it for years, right?

"So… What?" Frank asked once they were facing the kitchenette.

"I don't know, bro. I'm the taco guy. Pancakes are not my thing."

"Who said pancakes?" Frank asked. "'Cause I can't make pancakes. I tried once and I nearly killed myself with the pan."

"The pan?" Leo asked. "Most people would say 'the oven'. Or even 'the whisk'."

"It was a long day," Frank said. But Leo saw it in the guy's eyes; it wasn't just a long day. It was a long day with _mom_. And how did Leo know that? Because Leo saw that look in the mirror every now and then.

But he figured he didn't need to add more trouble to his back and bring it up.

"Okay; something even _we _can't mess up." Leo said. They both stared at each other for a while.

"Peanut butter sandwiches it is," Frank said.

Reyna

July 7th

It was a form of pneumatic Chinese water torture. And the fact that she could tell you that meant that she'd had way too much time to think and that this was really bad. She was in some really deep Styx right here.

It wasn't drops of water that drip-dropped on her forehead; it was bursts of sunlight and puffs of fresh air. And she got them more. And more. Every single day. It drove her nuts, but it kept coming. Those little reminders that the world was happening even if she was stuck in a dungeon, in a small, dark dungeon…

Jason joked that she was like Hulk- when she got mad she got people out of her way if they didn't get out themselves. He'd called her the Incredible Reyna (before she'd smacked him so hard he'd never dared to do it again). She hoped that that would come true because right now- if she could get Octavian's weasel face out of her restricted small and dark breathing space; things would be amazing. If she could rip the wrist shackles holding her to the wall in some major Hollywood simulation; that would really help her cause.

_Well that's not happening, _she thought.

Suddenly the door opened and someone walked in. She went tough and cold when she recognised certain blond hair and a weak and untrained figure.

"Hey," Octavian said. Reyna fixed her eyes on him. People complained –and her friends told her about it- that her eyes were scary enough to nail a guy to the spot. She so hoped that happened right now- because she was not happy…

"You don't 'hey' me when we're walking to the senate. You don't 'hey' me when we cross paths in the fort or when I'm doing inspections. So you will definitely _not _start to 'hey' me when I'm sitting in a cell I don't belong in and am furious with you above all." She said.

"Okay, well, hello." Octavian said. That was probably meant to be funny. Reyna saw it as a punch-me. She decided not to react to it.

"Listen, I know you're not particularly thrilled to be in the position you're in." Octavian said. He was wearing a purple cape; a purple cape she, Jason, and Percy in turn had _earned _and that he'd _stolen._

"I know you're claustrophobic." Octavian said.

Reyna froze and all she heard was water dripping onto the rock floor.

"What?" She said coldly.

"You're claustrophobic." Octavian said. "I don't know why, I don't know since when- but you hate being in small places; you're even afraid of it. The last two days must've been horrible. You must be terrified right now, just chained to a wall in a tiny room. You would touch the ceiling if you raised your arm just a little above your head right now. If you did the splits you'd be able to touch both walls with flexed toes. Am I taking too much breathing air?"

"You take too much breathing air if you're standing in the middle of a forest." Reyna snarled at him. "Leave. Now."

"You are not in charge here."

"Oh yeah?" Reyna said. "Then hurt me. Make me feel like a prisoner. Do your best, I'll tell you when it starts feeling like it."

A lump moved up her chest. She was in the same mess she'd been in five years ago.

Octavian pursed his lips and spun around, cape billowing. He hiked up the stairs.

"Have fun staying in the dark then. Did you know that only about 21% of air is oxygen?" He said, which made her lock her jaw, before he closed the door on her again.

And she was in the tiny cell again.

She closed her eyes.

_Octavian said you were scared. He said you were small and afraid and vulnerable. Are you any of those things? What's more important, proving him wrong- like you proved wrong everybody else who doubted you-, or worrying about breathing air? _

She opened them. She sucked with words so much she wasn't even convincing herself things would be okay.

She blew her bangs out of her eyes and rolled them. She needed out for her own mental health, for the wellbeing of Rome and the physical _wrong being_ of Octavian Dalton.


	29. II Reyna, Annabeth, Jason, Hazel

**So; here's the latest.**

**I got my Fanpop account back and got to work on some articles again because that's what I do. So then I go to publish the article... And my account suddenly melts away. Which makes no sense, because the article was as clean as mine all are, it was on the right club, I even had sources for my pictures! How much more legal can I get in this? *sigh* I even made the draft for this with the [i][/i] systems I need for itallic. So I'm sorry people of Fanpop; I was trying to come back, but what do you want, the site hates me now. (Whoever'll be copy-pasting this to Fanpop, add in this part, I miss the HoO club!)**

**Anyways, back to the story!**

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><p>II<p>

Reyna

July 7th: Around Midnight 

She was nearly asleep.

It was an incredible progress considering the size of her sleeping area. There was a reason she spent some nights under the stars with Jason, or on the atrium's couch where the ceiling was half open. She couldn't take small spaces in her own house, every now and then. And she was halfway into Somnus' realm _here _of all places when…

"Oh, Reyna dear… Beautiful Reyna, so, so lost…" Her head snapped up. She hadn't heard the dungeon's doors open or close, so who was-

Then she saw Circe.

She had to check twice to make sure, but some part of her knew automatically who it was and was just yelling to be believed. The witch had her dress made of moving silk shadows, and her hair braided with gold in intricate braids like you'd see on pieces of ancient pottery. She was beautiful and slim and narrow like an illusion; but she was powerful even if her muscles lacked. Everything about her had just stepped out of a five star spa. Of course it did, she owned one.

A black polish finger came and touched Reyna's face and then her hand.

"Your skin has become hard."

"It's from the training." Reyna said.

"So have you."

"It's from the training." Reyna repeated.

"It's from the hardship. All these things you've done… Lead wars, lead a Camp, fighting in numerous places, you've been in places that are _definitely _not approvable…" She looked around. "Brought to you by men, or course." Circe said.

"Why are you here? How did you find me?" Reyna asked.

"My beautiful Reyna, things are stirring, don't you know? Even I can come back. I heard Percy Jackson was here. And the blonde. Where is she? Where are they? Better question yet, where's Blackbeard?"

"Dead." Reyna said. Circe smiled to reveal the white teeth smile you saw on posters at the dentist. Except it wasn't fake; Circe relished the thought that he was six feet under.

"Dead, eh?" She asked.

"Yes," Reyna gulped. "Hylla killed him."

Circe froze and straightened.

"Hylla killed him?" She said each word carefully.

"Yes. And I killed the provost; the discipline master of the ship. And two other men."

Circe looked down on Reyna.

"These horrible things have happened to you," she said. "Oh, my Reyna…"

"No," Reyna said. She shrunk away from the sorceress' touch as much as her chains would let her. "They've led me to great things."

"Like this?" Circe said motioning the cell.

"Like strength." Reyna growled. "And power. And friendship; Opportunity; Nature."

"Hmm, you're forgetting a big one," Circe said tapping her chin with a nail in fake thoughtfulness. "Love, right? Now please deny it that…"

"I have a boyfriend and I've kissed him a million times and I will a million times more once I'm out of here." Reyna said to pop that bubble.

Circe let her arms drop. "Oh dear, I thought it wouldn't be true. I dared to think that. But no. Reyna Bell forgot what men are…"

"Men," she said. "Are cowards. It takes _a man, _to be amazing. And some of them _are_ exactly that out there. I know several."

"Tut, tut, tut," Circe said. "They all end up as the same thing."

"Only when you turn the whole batch into Guinea Pigs," Reyna spat, suddenly defensive. It was one of Circe's 'pigs' that had been her best friends over the last few years, that she could always count on and place next to her in the scheme of things, in the battlefield, in the future...

Circe looked at Reyna with glazed over eyes.

"Well, let's turn them all into pigs, shall we? Right here; from this camp they dare call quality for demigods." Circe said. "There's the one who captured you. Easy; he captured you. The one who calls you a friend but his cohort isn't doing anything to save you. That's two. The one that brought back sour memories and was only tactless when he did so; three. And this Prince Charming I'm hearing about that apparently didn't have a white horse to spare." She dove into Reyna's eyes. "That's four."

"Don't trash talk about any of them," Reyna said, her guard jolting back up. "We told Dakota to hang low to keep at least a handful of the legionnaires out of trouble. Percy is Percy and I admit I couldn't stand him but now he's more than tolerable. And don't you _dare_ bring up Jason Grace. I told him to go without me. He didn't want to. He's as far from what you told me males were, as far as I am from your island."

"I'm going to rebuild it," Circe said. "You could come back. Hylla could come back. So would all the other girls- Gaia will raise them for me. It'll be like the pirates never killed anybody you loved. Do you remember Stacy? Of course you remember Stacy, you two were practically sisters."

"I'd die before." Reyna said. "I'm loyal to Rome."

"You were loyal to _me_," Circe said.

"Not anymore. The world moved on when you were dead." Reyna said.

"It's a chance for you to escape this." Circe said, waving her hand around.

"I said no." Reyna said. "You couldn't pay me to go back to what I was."

"You were fabulous."

"Well now I must be _amazing." _Reyna said. "I'm a daughter of Bellona, legionnaire and praetor of Rome. I don't need Gaia's threats and promises."

"You need to hold your tongue when you have nothing nice to say," Circe said. "That was always your problem."

"And it always will be, I suppose." Reyna said. Circe tightened her cloak around her shoulders.

"Don't bother going to find Hylla. She's the head of the Amazon kingdom. You'll just die again if you step in her way." Circe twitched.

"Fine. Stay where you are and rot." She said.

"I rather rot Roman than live like you." Reyna said.

"Don't count on me to ever come back and free you from your chains after this."

"I wouldn't even want you to." Reyna said. Circe was pale with rage and insulted like heck, Reyna knew it. She recognised that light in her eyes. She shot Reyna one more look.

"Beautiful Reyna, you're ruined." She said again. And then she disappeared into the night. Reyna shivered. She'd thought about the spa a million times before. Except in different ways.

It'd been like a slide that way. At first she was homesick on the pirate ship, then she was mad that it'd failed her, weakened her. Then when she'd gotten back on solid land, scrambling to find a place for demigods; she'd thought of it as so superficial and unnecessary and vane. When she'd been at Camp Jupiter it'd been a mix of the last four, and a sigh of relief to have one way or another gotten out of there; gotten where she was. Where Jason, Dakota, Bobby, Lupa, _Rome _had found her. And then since Percy Jackson had come back it'd been fear; what if the sorceress came back to?

But when Reyna looked at Circe it wasn't with awe to her power. It was hard to look up at Circe in her robes and French manicures when you'd been through the things she had, and strengthened in a way Circe would never allow.

Annabeth

July 7th

As she watched Ella and Quinn lean over a physics book, she was thinking about just how wrong that was.

She wasn't meant to be here and she knew it as much as she knew Percy or her science manual. This was wrong. She was important at Camp, yes, but she wasn't meant to be on the Argo II, it was just... She scolded herself for being here instead of at camp. She could easily have said no to Percy and Jason and run off on her own. Plans to escape Camp Jupiter and make her way to San Francisco had blossomed in her mind since. Or even better, she could've made a last stand with Reyna. She should have insisted on it even. If not Reyna, Camp needed someone there. _Chiron_ needed someone there.

The idea still made her sick and blew her logic to bits. Chiron was dying, yet they still needed him. They still needed him badly. The doors of death could have sucked in anyone in the world, and it picked Chiron. It picked the one person demigods could still ask questions to; and drained the life out of him.

How could that die? He'd talked to freaking Nostradamus- he'd mentored de Vinci- Shakespeare had asked Chiron for advice! And now he was dropping dead?

"Annabeth?" Quinn asked. "I don't understand what Ella's trying to tell me and the book's more complicated in English," she said. "Plus Frank has no idea what it means."

"I hate science." Frank said.

"Well, you can't live your whole life mastering lunch and gym class," Annabeth said, getting up. That woke Percy up. He'd been sitting in the sun, she'd sat down next to him with a book she'd borrowed from Ella's stack, and he'd fallen asleep with his head on her knees. At least he didn't drool anymore- that would've been disgusting. She could just see the kind of ammo Jason, Frank and Leo would pull from that…

Ella was perched on the railing behind Quinn. She held out a wing and pointed. "Quantum physics for Quinn…" Ella said. "Quinn doesn't like Quantum physics…" Quinn frowned.

"I'm sure I will," Quinn said. "Once I understand what you mean."

"Quantum physics," Annabeth said. "I'm sure you've heard about it. It's… Umm… Oh, Piper- how do you say quantum physics in French?"

"_Someil_," Piper said.

"That means sleep," Quinn said.

"What's the difference?" Jason asked. Annabeth made a face.

"_La physique quantique_." Piper said.

"Oh!" Quinn said. "That's it? Well, I do agree Ella. Richard Feynman was a pioneer," she said.

"Who was Wein?" Frank whispered.

"Julie Feynman's brother," Percy whispered back.

She blocked out Percy and focused on what was really on her mind now; Quinn.

Quinn puzzled Annabeth.

She was small for her age, Annabeth admitted, and terribly shy. Her mind was incredibly developed, and in a few days' time Annabeth felt closer to Quinn than she was to a lot of her other sisters. But there was something about Quinn that bothered Annabeth. And not Quinn herself, but there was something off that was worrying her little sister, and that should worry Annabeth. She hadn't even dared ask her about why last time they'd run into each other in New Rome, she'd been in tears. Annabeth just felt like there was something she _should_ be doing to help that she wasn't.

"Bohm, Bohr, Born, Bose, de Broglie, Dirac, Ehrenfest, Everett, Eisenberg, Jordan, Kramers, von Neumann, Pauli, Planck, Schrödinger, Sommerfeld, Wien, Wigner…" Ella kept naming scientists that had participated in everything from medicine to architecture to physics. Quinn and Annabeth let her off in her own world.

"The book terminology in English must be confusing," Annabeth said peeking at the cover of the book she was holding. Quinn flipped it so Annabeth could see it right.

"A bit. I'm not the brightest today either." Quinn said.

"How well did you sleep?" Annabeth asked tentatively. Quinn froze over like the subject was something unspoken.

"Quinn, you can't expect me not to notice," Annabeth said. "You really haven't been all there since we left, and you have pockets to fit a dagger under your eyes. Your eyes are bloodshot, you look tired, sometimes you don't answer as quickly in the morning as others…"

"I get it," Quinn interrupted. That was a first, even with Annabeth. "I'm okay. I don't sleep well on water, that's all."

Annabeth had two mortal brothers, and a handful of immortal siblings, and her best friend and boyfriend were Grover Underwood and Percy Jackson. If there was one thing she _could _do, it was spot a liar. But there was nothing to be said. Quinn obviously wasn't budging. Her chin had just toughed up, like she was about to get stubborn. Stubborn Quinn wasn't something Annabeth was looking forwards to. But still… why stubbornness?

It was later in the day and she and Jason were in charge of making lunch.

"You know Quinn?" She asked him.

"Yes," Jason said. "I'm on the same flying boat as her, aren't I?"

"I meant know her, like, when she got to Camp, when she just joined the legion…" Annabeth said.

"Yes," Jason said. "The other cohorts grabbed at her like piranhas. She was nearly put in the fifth as a draw. I'd sort of have wished it on her too. "

"Why the grab for her? I mean, she's a fighter, and she's smart, but…"

"Quinn's pretty cool," Jason said in a way that distinguished him from Jason her friend, to Jason the roman officer. "Illegally crossing borders, bilingual, foreign…"

"So all the things that I have but that nobody cared about?" Frank said handing under deck.

"Since when are you bilingual?" Jason said.

"Okay, set aside bilingualism." Frank said. "But national borders- actually not that bad."

"As long as you do it illegally and they don't confiscate your oranges or other citrus." Annabeth said.

"Okay, yes." Frank nodded.

"Did I mention that Quinn's also really in shape and quick and people saw shy factor as obedience factor? Whereas Frank, you had none of that." Jason said.

"You talked to your girlfriend, didn't you?" Frank said.

"Yes, yes I did." Jason said.

"Okay, that's as far as I figured, but was there anything that made cohorts…" She cast a side glance at Frank. It wasn't that she didn't trust him or anything (he'd kept Seaweed brain alive; she was pretty sure Frank could be trusted with FBI classed intellect) but it made it a little more awkward to ask Jason the question.

"Alright," Frank said leaving.

"It's just a bad time." Annabeth told him. "Don't feel unloved."

"I won't," he promised. Annabeth turned back to Jason.

"Is there anything that made anybody hesitate on her?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Jason said.

"Is there anything medically wrong with her?"

"You're worse than Thalia in the worried sister department," Jason said.

"I'm just asking," Annabeth said.

"No, she's okay." Jason said. "Why?"

"Nothing," Annabeth said.

Maybe she _was _just seasick… And Percy was innocent, sure.

"Yeah, and Percy's innocent." Jason rolled his eyes. "Pass me that knife? No- the cooking one."

She was lost in thought again. Quinn wasn't okay. She was hiding something, and Annabeth wasn't mad at her for it. It sounded like the kind of secret you hid because you couldn't show. Annabeth's wall went up. If Quinn had to deal that bitterness… There was a select group of people Annabeth wished that on, and they included Octavian, Joan and Hera. Not a group that Quinn fit into.

"Annabeth- don't try and get in Quinn's life," Jason said. "She's a legionnaire. She won't appreciate her weaknesses looked into."

"And that's where your Roman egos are all wrong. Weakness is looking away from it." Annabeth said. "If there's something hurting her…"

"What are you talking about? Quinn is fine." Jason said.

"She's tired all the time." Annabeth said.

"Nightmares." Jason said. His face immediately darkened and Annabeth knew he was dreaming bad things.

"Maybe." Annabeth said not to push anything.

She didn't buy it.

No half-blood had nightmares that bad forever without some serious trauma having taken place to them when they were young; and in this quest pasts were vital. It was why they were all here, after all; because of what they'd already done to prove themselves, or because of some unique and usually unhealthy background. But she recognised that she shouldn't have asked him. She should've asked Piper; Piper had lived with Quinn for a bit, or come as close as anyone there had.

And Annabeth was getting increasingly worried.

Then she heard someone yell above deck, and people move quick.

She was one of them.

Jason

Annabeth was _so _onto him it was scary.

His face must've darkened or something when he'd said 'nightmares' because she'd looked at him funny, like she looked at someone that she knew was lying to her.

He wasn't lying. He was just sharing the nicer part of the truth and withholding the other. That was Stoll brother logic for 'I am totally lying but I'll deny it for ever'. But last night's dream had totally freaked him out.

Thalia, Nico, Mrs. Zhang, and a kid who looked so much like Leo Jason had gotten a heart attack thinking Leo was there too. There was another addition; a guy with shaggy chestnut hair and light eyes. Jason knew him from the legion; Jedediah Adams. He was the only one standing up and looking 360 around like a door would pop up and he couldn't miss it.

"Jedediah, it's night." Thalia said.

"That doesn't mean nothing's coming." Jedediah said, like any legionnaire would've.

"But it means that something's coming, and you don't want to be there." Nico said. "You don't want to be in its way."

"How big? What is it?" Jedediah asked. "There's got to be something to use as a weapon in here…"

"Buddy, if there were, I'd have found it." Thalia said.

"Besides, it's not a thing with a size; it's more abstract than that." Nico said.

"Abstract is bad," Jedediah said.

"It comes every night," Leo's clone said. "No one knows why."

"What _is _it?"

"Just sit down and listen, impatient boy!" Mrs. Zhang scolded. Jedediah immediately dropped down and shut up like a boy scolded by a teacher.

"And brace for impact," Thalia said.

Hazel

She bit down on the inside of her cheek. It was probably all bloody and disgusting in there now, she was way too nervous all the time, and she chewed her mouth way too often. Call it being around the fire guy who's possibly your ex while your actual sort-of boyfriend's flammable life is in your pocket.

That does the nerves.

Whenever she and Leo were together, she had no idea what to say. _What would you have said to Sammy?_ She thought. But that wasn't fair to either one of them. Not to Leo if he was his own person, not to Sammy if he really had died in Texas a long time ago.

_When I should've been there…_

She kept thinking about the past. Sometimes Leo would say something, or do something twitchy and ADHD (what a new concept! That had _not _existed, nor had all the special education stuff! Gods of Olympus that would have been helpful) and she'd just get sucked back in her memories about Sammy, wearing clothes from the forties' and doing the _exact same thing._

Like right now. He was monitoring the boat's GPS , autopilot and navigational equipment. She was at the tip of the ship, reading a book about computers- which she was still trying to figure out. She looked up and saw his fingers drumming on the steering wheel. He drummed all his fingers, then the ring and index. Then he drummed them all again, then the ring and index…

Sammy always, _always _did that. On the stable walls when he was waiting for her to finish closing a door (which she stalled all the time), at the school gate when he was waiting for her before walking back, on his desk, at the park…

Suddenly the breath was sucked out of her and she fell back, eyes rolled up.


	30. III Leo, Hazel, Jason, Quinn

**Well, this week I had a breakthrough as far as a certain picky scene went, so I'm all happy! Except I've been focusing on a 5 page story beginning I can send it to *hopefully* go see the Hunger Games. That's my news, hope you had a nice week, thanks for the reviews/hits/favourites/alerts! Enjoy!**

**Today you get two chapters, and I want reviews for both! Oh, and new mysterious characters slightly growing in. Organ music is played in background as you read this sentence. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the following characters (except for Quinn Hunter tee-hee!) or the world they live in. **

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><p>III<p>

Leo

July 7th; afternoon of 

Leo knew a lot of things, and thankfully one of those things was CPR.

"Hey," he'd called to Hazel. Her head was dropped on her chest and she was as limp as a rag doll. Was she asleep? Were computers really that confusing to her? "Hazel?" He checked. Nothing. He left his spot and shook her by the shoulder.

"Hazel… Hazel… Hazy Hazy Hazel…"

He'd tried calling her that once and she'd nearly bitten his head off, but this time he got no reaction. He left the bar and knelt next to her, leaning his head closer to her, listening for her breathing. She wasn't.

"Yo Percy- get someone smart up here!" He yelled over his shoulder. "We've got a problem!"

He lied Hazel down and did CPR as best as he could remember. It was 30 compressions and 2 breaths right? Right (hopefully). And his right hand was above the left one… Right (hopefully).

He did okay by the time the others had rushed above. Percy was kneeling next to Leo.

"What happened?" Frank asked. Leo couldn't see his face –and he had other problems right there and then- but he bet it'd become as pale as sheets.

"I don't know," Percy said. "She was reading, Leo was steering, everyone was doing their thing, then Leo started shouting and now he's doing CPR!"

"S-slow your c-compressions," Quinn muttered. She was probably pretty pale too, but Leo listened to her because she was smart for something so short.

"Come on, wake up." Leo muttered to her.

"Not asleep," Ella muttered oh so helpfully. "Sharing doesn't work for this, nope, nope."

_Whatever you want Ella, _Leo thought in the corner of his mind that wasn't dedicated to saving a person's life.

2 breaths, 4 compressions… And she gasped for air, sending Leo flying back in surprise. She shot up like a bullet, and fell back on her elbow, coughing like she was chocking. Hopefully she wasn't, because the Heimlich manoeuvre- he did _not _know.

Everyone on the Argo II let out a huge breath as Hazel's began to stabilise.

Percy was the first one to move and that was to give her a huge hug. Her hand made a scramble for Frank's, and she just held it in reassurance, looking completely spaced out, like she'd just walked into a new dimension.

"Hazel- what the heck- don't ever just stop breathing like that," Leo said. Hazel was pale and shaking, and Leo saw sweat going down her forehead. How to treat shock? Leo was out.

"I… I don't know- what the- I was just thinking about…" Hazel stuttered and she looked so completely lost right then…

"Come on," Jason said, getting her back to her feet. He held an arm around her to hold her steady. "You're standing your ground okay?"

"Yeah." Hazel stammered, which she would've anyways. Jason brought her downstairs and everyone else just stayed there dumbfound thinking 'what?'

"Hazel nearly die," Tyson said, looking about as traumatised as Leo felt.

"Got that right," Leo said. Frank looked horrible.

"What was going on?" He asked Leo. It sounded almost threatening.

"I don't know, man," Leo said, throwing his hands up like a cornered criminal. "She was reading Ella's books on computers, 'cause she's still trying to figure those out. She was just… there. And then I realised she was asleep, but I got worried and checked and she wasn't breathing. No one did _anything _to her," Leo said to clear up Frank's mind.

"We know, it's okay." Piper said, calming him down as much as the others. "You all saw her wake up, and her breathing was getting better. She was standing for a bit. She's fine. She's gonna be fine. Jason's just giving her some space, and trying to calm her down. We should calm down too."

He took two deep breaths before going 'wait-what?' Charmspeak; what a sneaky little do-gooder…

"Do you think it's..?" Percy asked Frank.

"No." Frank said. "Those are over. She hasn't had one since the one in the_ Pax_."

"The boat?" Annabeth asked.

"She used to have these blackout moments. She saw her old life, in New Orleans…" Frank said uncomfortably; as if New Orleans were taboo. Leo had, personally, no problems with New Orleans. Sure he'd been confused when she'd asked him if there were cold drinks on the Argo II (that was only until he'd figured out that 'cold drink' meant 'soda'), but her accent was so cool, and they had awesome parties in New Orleans apparently.

"So she had another one?"

"_Sharing _doesn't work," Ella repeated.

"They never did this to her," Frank said. "Not even the bad ones. Besides, she took me into one of them and got over it; Ella said 'sharing doesn't work'. This isn't the same thing. And she was never… Dead… During them."

"We could tell she was alive even if she wasn't breathing. It makes no sense, but we could." Percy said. "Now… Now she was dead or dying or whatever you want to call it."

"Bad?" Piper suggested. Nobody else said a word.

"How about we just stay above deck and see if Jason can calm her down." Percy said finally. General agreement was yes.

Hazel

She was blinking out tears from her eyes and holding Jason's hand. He didn't protest even if her nails must be digging into his hand.

"I don't understand," she said.

"You don't have to; not right now, just breathe." Jason said firmly and softly at the same time.

"It's never- never happened…"

"It's over."

"What if it- what if it happens again?"

"Then we'll just bring you back again." Jason said. Hazel moaned and tears touched down on her cheeks, and slid down like landing airplanes.

"It's because I'm supposed to be dead, isn't it?" She said.

"Hazel; you're alive. You're not a dead person, you're alive. You're talking to me and other people born in the twentieth century, you're feeling things, you're moving objects; you are alive." He said squeezing her hand. "So just chill- and take a deep breath. You're okay. Nobody would have let anything happen to you."

"I don't get it." Hazel said.

"That's not important." Jason said.

Eventually he knocked her from total panic to 'right; breathing helps' and she managed to calm down. She could see the planks in the roof creaking as she stared up from her sleeping bag. Jason just waited with her, comforting her, and giving her his real and solid hand to hold, just so she knew that it was there.

"There's something I never got to ask you," she said.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Did you know I was back from the dead before you disappeared in October?" Hazel asked, sitting up and twisting so she looked at him. Jason stopped to think about that.

"Well; you acted odd, I saw it. And you were always an outsider, even for a child of the Big Three. And you were so surprised when someone mentioned a show or actor or whatever. I knew you'd missed _something._ But back from the dead? You're overrating my imagination." Jason said. "It wouldn't have mattered to me. It doesn't matter now. And it doesn't matter to anyone, alright?"

"Alright," she said although it was weak. Her voice sounded small and faded compared to his. He was confident and strong and full of leadership. She was small and wondering what in Olympus she was doing where she was. Hazel guessed that that was another circle she completed. Nico was death; she was wealth. Jason was strong; Percy was strong; she was not.

"Medea and Midas were dead. You minded them." She said.

"They'd cheated their way out of death." Jason said.

"Me too," Hazel said.

"No," Jason said. "You don't get it. They're ghouls. They're just… There. They don't deserve to be alive and they're not back for a good reason. You… Well, you're here because there's a reason. And from what I get- you were born at the wrong time. Your father said that, didn't he? You should have been here with us from the beginning. This is just amends, you'd call it."

She thought about that. If she was here, could Sammy be too? Maybe he'd just found another way to come back. Maybe he'd slipped into rebirth or something. If he'd really thought about her his whole life, then maybe _he _had amends too. Her head got woozy and every thought distant from each other and herself, and Jason pinched her ear.

"Stay with me," he said. That pinch made her refocus.

"Sorry I was thinking about… Stuff…"

"New Orleans stuff?"

"Yes." Hazel said. "Do you… Do you think that's why that happened?"

"Maybe," Jason said. "Just don't think about it. Think about here and now, just in case. That's where you are and it's where you belong now, okay?"

"Kay," Hazel said.

"I know it's not easy to just… Forget about your past." Jason said. "And I don't want to force you either, because that's harder. But try to live in the present."

Hazel bit her lips. _Easier said than done,_ she thought.

"You should rest." Jason said. "Did you want me to stay or call Frank or- don't blush, yes I know."

"Sorry," Hazel said. "I just didn't think it was that obvious."

"It's not. I just know things." He said with fake arrogance.

"Sure you do." She said with a smile. "I'm okay."

"Well, someone's going to be there." Jason said. "You are not going totally unsupervised until we're sure about what happened and whether or not it'll go again."

"What are you, my mother?" Hazel asked. Her throat clogged up.

"No, I'm your cousin, and we're a brand nearly just as bad." Jason said. "'Sleep tight."

And she fell asleep just like that.

Jason

Dinner had been quiet. Frank had gone down to keep tabs on Hazel, he refused to leave, and she wasn't waking up any time soon from how sound asleep she was. Nobody talked about it, but it looked on the edge of everyone's minds

"Is she going to be okay?" Leo finally blurted. Jason nodded.

"Thanks to you."

Piper put a hand on Leo's shoulder to comfort him as Jason went on. "She's just… confused…"

"Like the rest of us." Piper said.

"What happened? That was a near death experience." Annabeth said. "Why did death just lunge for her again? Did she… She wasn't even putting her life in danger… She was doing about the most non-deadly thing you can!"

"I object," Percy said.

"Just because you have issues with reading…" Annabeth said.

"I don't know," Jason cut the Percy and Annabeth debate before it went into full-fledge war. "She was thinking of her old life apparently."

"Is D-Death c-closer to her every- umm- every time she does?" Quinn asked. Quinn got startled out of speech when she realised everyone was listening to her. She did that a lot.

"Maybe," Annabeth said. "That sounds right."

"So she can't think about New Orleans, or her parents, or old friends or anything that makes her comfortable or else she dies?" Leo asked. "That's not fair!"

Jason shrugged. "She's strong enough to take it." _Hopefully._

"He's right, Hazel's special, she'll pull through." Percy said.

Quinn

She saw Hazel sleeping next to her. Her chest was rising and falling with breath she –thankfully- hadn't lost forever.

Hazel couldn't remember her past without dying. Quinn remembered her past and it killed her a bit inside as the voices took goes at Cate, Josh, Dad, Ella… and right now, the one that hurt the most, Jedediah.

It was like hitting a pressure spot Quinn hadn't known was there. She was just so sensible about it. She'd hurt him once, she'd seen it in his face when he turned her back on her thinking she didn't care. Somehow she, plain Quinn Hunter, with more problems than solutions from a small town, had broken a guy like Jedediah Adams' heart. And if she hurt him again… If the Voices got sent out at him like hunting hounds to do it… Quinn would never, ever forgive herself. It was a queasy she'd never felt before. Worrying about someone that wasn't Dad, Cate, none of the usual people on the hit list.

And tossing and turning didn't help.

* * *

><p>Percy4forever- You tell me! I think so, but I tried to post something and POOF, I'm out again! I'm in the Fanpop dog house :(<p>

MusicReadWrite25- Oh my gosh- I love that song now! I'm going to put it on YouTube RIGHT NOW.

Simplifi- I feel your pain :P

Wierdo2- It's gone again :(


	31. IV Leo, Piper, Jason

IV

Leo

July 8th; night of 

Jane touched her index and thumb to her mouth and put out the match's flame. She tossed it to the ground.

"So, Cedric Bailey-" Jane said.

"Yes, Jane Stone," Cedric said. Leo would have smirked, but Jane's eyes became even scarier. She had that Annabeth and Reyna quality, like she was not only smart enough to pull off stunts you dreamed of, but she was also rock solid, with the same sensitivity.

"I'm going to take you through a little tour of these dungeons."

"Does this involve me coming out of my cell?" He asked.

"No."

"Never mind then."

"So let's start with the outer walls," she said deciding to annoy him; another Annabeth/Reyna quality to her. "You'll see that there are seven cells. Three of them are busy right now."

"Yeah, I'm here, Lyn is over there, and Joseph is there. Hey Joseph."

"Silence." Jane hissed. "Yes; they are your friends. Then, if you look to your right on the back wall, you'll notice the chains. They're there for a reason, okay? Don't look too far as to _what _we chain there. And yes I have personally chained a man to that wall.

Now, those stairs, are the only way in and out of here. Not even a secret passage for us sneaky praetors to get in or out on our own while scaring the life out of our victims. One staircase –that's it- and it's heavily guarded.

Now; onto my favourite part; these guards. You may or may not notice that they don't move, breathe, or otherwise show signs of life. That would be because they're automatons. Automatons that don't get tricked by striking egos, trash talk, distractions or any of it. They're perfect; bread and butter; less room for mistakes. They're programmed for one thing; and that's to kill anything that is not behind bars and not either me or a select group of five Romans I trust with my life."

"Very impressive bots," Cedric said. "I suppose you made them?"

"I was the designer." She nodded.

"Daughter of Vulcan, then? Wow- you got me. I thought you were Mars for a second."

"And I keep thinking you're Aphrodite because you run your mouth for no apparent reason." Jane said.

"Ooof," Cedric said taking in a lot of air. "Strike out on that one. Hecate."

"Oh, wonderful, a magical child," Jane sighed.

"The gods must hate you." Cedric sympathised.

"Silence. Needless to say, looking around, you realise that there is no way you can escape; unless you die. Then I will carry your cold and dead body out. So you might as well make yourself comfortable, find something you can carve the walls with to start counting the days, and cooperate." Jane said.

"I'm not very cooperative by nature," Cedric said. "I'm a bit of a rebel, you know? It's useful every now and then. Sometimes it just gets me in trouble, like when I'm talking to scary repair girls with daggers."

Jane flicked her wrist and her dagger expended to a sword like a switchblade would.

"The scary repair girl with a dagger doesn't appreciate that title and she has much more than a dagger up her sleeve, and most of them are much, much more painful."

Piper

Okay, Piper was having the weirdest dream of the lot, and that was saying something. She'd dreamt everything from Drew running after her with a weedwacker in one hand and a voodoo doll in another, to Leo winning a Nobel Peace Prize, to some Gaia related crud.

Never. Ever. Had she dreamt of mysterious strangers. Especially not… Let's say strangers that weren't hard to look at. Okay, fine; gorgeous strangers.

Piper didn't get what it was about him. He was tall, with the kind of tan of someone who spent a lot of time outside spread all over his skin, and thick brown hair. He had a square jaw, and dark eyes like cocoa powder. He was taking shots at soccer net, a sweaty shirt thrown to the side, and Piper could see that he was muscle and battle scar on bone.

He kicked a soccer ball and it went soaring up into the net.

"And the crowd goes wild!" A girl said, coming into scene. She had the same tan, long and curly strands of honey brown hair and blue eyes. She was paler than he was, though.

"Yeah," he said smiling. "Sure Dani." She tossed him a shirt.

"Put it on, I'll get the ball for you. Speed it up. If you, out of all the people, are late…"

"I know, I know, I am forever screwed." He said, pulling his shirt back on. Piper tried to make out what it said, but he moved too quickly before she could make out more than the camouflage colour.

"Exactly," the girl, Dani, said.

Leo

He shot up again. Man- these dreams were so random and rude and disturbing in his sleep!

He looked around to see if anyone else was stirring. Piper looked like she was having very nice dreams, Percy and Annabeth were holding hands from their sleeping bags as usual, Jason looked tense even in his sleep, Ella had her head stuck under her wing, Frank was snoring, and Hazel wasn't in bed. All was normal.

He climbed above deck, and saw her sitting exactly where she had been sitting yesterday, holding the book, but looking straight ahead of her.

"You don't sleep well, do you?" Leo said. Hazel spun around to look at him.

"Ever notice how we never start a day off with 'good morning'?" She asked. "And I'm not that bad. If you ask me, the one everyone should really be worried about is Q-" She bit her lips. "Doesn't matter, it's not me."

"You should be resting," he said.

"And you should be quieter because people are sleeping." She said.

"Fine, but you should. And if they weren't sleeping they'd say the same thing." Leo said. Hazel blew her bangs out of her solid gold eyes.

"I'm fine." She said. "I don't know what that was about, but…"

"Is that why you're sitting at the exact same spot with the exact same book?" Leo asked. She put the book down.

"Have you ever had a secret you couldn't talk about?"

"I'm a fire user. It killed my own Mom. I was in the mortal world. Secrets, are like, nothing new." He said. Hazel nodded.

"Your mom died? I'm sorry, not that it helps. What was her name?"

Odd question…

"Esperanza." Leo said. "Valdez."

"Did she have any siblings?" Hazel asked. Leo frowned. Weird question.

"Yeah, she has a sister called Rosa, although I don't see how they both came from the same place." Leo said. Hazel nodded again.

"What about your grandparents?"

"I don't know. My grandma sort of freaked on Mom seven months before I came around. She said my grandpa would have understood, but he died when she was still a kid."

Her eyes brightened off, like the light shone of the gold.

"When was that?" Hazel asked.

"I don't know, in the sixties, why?"

Hazel gasped for air and then she was choking, and choking, and…

Jason

Jason slept about as lightly as a squirrel with anxiety. He just couldn't sleep well. Not with other people and openings for danger and other people possibly in danger around him. Quests; forget it. War times; you had a better chance of putting a city to sleep. Wait bad metaphor…

But when he heard chocking, he bolted up. His foot knocked something down, and Quinn bolted up too, maybe even a little too fast, as if she'd already been up. Her hand was flying for her glasses last Jason saw, but he was already running upstairs when he saw Hazel and Leo and… CPR?

"I don't know, man." Leo called out. Jason knelt by his side and just waited, tense. Nothing else was to be done- it's not like there was a defibrillator, or like nectar and ambrosia would help. Finally Hazel had a spaz and they rolled her to her side, the semi-prone position, as she struggled for air. Her eyes finally opened.

"You're good," Jason said. "It's okay."

"Oh my gods- that… No, not a-"

"Hazel, don't worry about it." Jason said firmly. "You are fine. We don't even have to tell the others if you don't want to. Breathe."

She closed her eyes and did what he asked for about thirty seconds before going;

"Oh my gods- Leo!" She shot up and spun around to look at him. "You… Your…"

"Hazel, I didn't do anything!" He said, throwing his hands up like she was holding a gun to his chest.

"I know it's just that…" She seemed to lose that trail of thought.

"I'll go get some water." Jason said, getting up.

This was the second time this had happened, and Leo had been relatively alone with her both times. Jason didn't think that Leo had _done _anything to her- Hazel would probably kick his butt when he was half-way through it- but something wasn't right.

Then again, they were two weird kids. They were all weird kids, as far as he was concerned. They had powers that nobody had seen in forever, blessings that gods never gave, ancestries that nobody thought of, pasts that would give genealogists migraines and make gang members feel sorry for them… Maybe it was just Hazel that went off about her old life at random times. Maybe she'd known a guy named Leo, or a hyper Mexican kid. Maybe it was being without anybody familiar (like Frank, or Percy, or even him) that made Hazel go off. Who knew?

He came back with a water canteen, and Hazel chugged it down nearly at once.

"You good?" Leo asked. She nodded.

"I'm sorry- I- please don't tell Frank…" She said.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anybody." Leo promised her.

"Tell anybody what? To Tell, _I tell, you tell, she tells, we tell…_"

It was Ella, hopping about the deck.

"Err-"

"That Hazel can dance really well," Jason said. "Hairspray and whatnot? Totally up her sleeve."

"Pretty Little liars, seasons 1-2, starring Troian Bellisario…" Ella mumbled before flying off to the crow's nest.

"She's right, bro. And Hazel." Leo said. "What do we tell the others?"

Jason met Hazel's eye. She'd been trained and programmed to be strong. Against weakness. This was it, to her, and it would kill her (not literally) to have people worrying and this and that and… Well, Jason didn't want her to risk any more of these seizures or attacks or whatever. He wished Thalia was there right now; she knew more about handling people's pasts, as head of the hunters and all; something that the legion had never been the greatest at, no matter how hard Jason tried to be humane. But no, his sister wasn't anywhere close. As his dream had reminded him, Gaia had taken her hostage.

"You really don't want anyone to know?" Jason said. Hazel nodded like her head would fly off.

"Okay," Jason said. "But if this ever happens again, or we ever think this was just too dangerous…"

"It wasn't!" Hazel said. "It really, really wasn't! I swear!"

"Okay, fine. But I'm taking the night shift before you, because you never wake me up on time." Leo said.

"You've got to stop thinking about your past." Jason whispered to her once Leo got up to check if the ship's autopilot had toughed out the night. She looked down at her knees.

"It's hard." She said. "It's like the elephant in the room. I want it back so bad, but at the same time I can't, and I can't fix it, but I just can't live with it either."

"I know," Jason said. "But you're strong enough, right? I mean, you're Hazel Levesque. You've done so many creepy things on these last two quests that I had no idea you could… You can do this no problem."

"If I can surprise you, I can surprise anybody. I included." Hazel said. Jason wished it was true but he thought back to Reyna in a dungeon of a place that'd raised them on shields, Thalia encased in earth, his mother the drunk wannabe… Jason could too be surprised. And he couldn't do anything about it when he was.


	32. V Hazel, Quinn

**I am so very sorry for the late post! I tried yesterday, but had problems. In other news that are not problems: Fanpop is working for me again! Yeay! And I figured out what the glitch was (and it was my fault, but I didn't know) so now it'll be okay! Anyways, I'm posting on Fanpop (I did yesterday), so if anybody wants to go back to the forum, go for it :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HoO **

* * *

><p>Hazel<p>

July 8th

Ever notice how time slows down when you want it to speed up? Or how when someone said 'don't do it' that's immediately what you go do? It was like that for her trail of thought. It led straight from the Argo II to Sammy Valdez, Queen Marie, New Orleans, Mardi Gras, Nora Bourdeau…

The thought clenched Hazel's throat all of a sudden. Oh, Nora…

She'd been the one girl friend Hazel had ever had. Her father was the butcher in the French quarter. When Hazel's jewels had started popping up all over the place, her mother had bought steak once. And Nora had been in the store, sitting at a table and looking at the people coming in and out. Hazel knew what that was like; she watched a lot too. Except she'd have never waved at someone and patted the bench next to her so they'd come sit down. But Nota had, and Hazel had gone to sit down.

"You're in my class," she said. Hazel hadn't thought Nora had noticed that.

"Yes," Hazel said. Nora's skin was the colour of cocoa, and her eyes were just as deep and brown. Her hair was made into corn rows, and it nearly got to her mid back.

"Cool," Nora said. "See that man over there, two in front of your mother in the line? He's been trying to order for five minutes. But he changes his mind all the time. "Steak. No, sausage. No, ham. Wait- how much is the beef? Oh no, never mind, my wife doesn't like beef"." Nora said, imitating a deep voice. Hazel giggled.

"Is the ham honey roasted? Oh, never mind, then- my son doesn't like that." He said. Hazel and Nora looked at each other and laughed.

"Sir, may I suggest steak?" Mr Bourdeau suggested.

"Excellent idea!" The man agreed.

"That's what Papa said first," Nora whispered. Hazel grinned, and the man walked out of the store with his steak. Hazel expected him to run back in.

"And that man picks his nose," Nora whispered. They both giggled and Queen Marie looked at Hazel with a raised eyebrow. Then her eyebrow dropped and she smiled.

"You mom is pretty," Nora said. "Mine is sick all the time and she hates me."

"Your dad is strong. I don't have a Dad." Hazel said.

"We should be sisters," Nora said. "Then we can share parents."

Someone pinched the back of her hand. She realised her eyes were getting fuzzy in the real world and she shook the dizzy out of her head. She saw Frank looking at her.

"Stay with us, Hazel." He said. "You were getting pale."

"Right, sorry." She said. He looked at her worried and it made Hazel's heart swell up in size. Someone –someone like Frank at that- worried about her like that? Noticing that she was paling and slipping away? She'd never thought it'd happen, even when she was alive. She was used of people avoiding her like the plague, and so being close to someone like Frank was a jumbo sized miracle.

"Is it because you're thinking of New Orleans?" He asked.

"My friend."

"Sammy?" Frank asked. She bit her lip when she saw the look on his face. It was a bit afraid, but stuffed back down his throat like 'afraid, I'm not afraid, it doesn't matter'.

"No. Nora." Hazel said. She was scared of saying her friend's name just in case. She could tell Frank wanted to ask but he didn't, and Hazel loved him for it. She wished she could tell him about the game they had going on, the way Nora stuck up for Hazel at school whenever she noticed anything, or walked her back home when Sammy wouldn't… But she couldn't. And it would hurt when she got to the part where Hazel's jewels started looking satanic to everyone, and Nora hadn't been an exception then. It'd been a very short sisterhood, but it was the best Hazel had ever known. She was already trying to forget the word 'cornrow'.

She was _so_ sure about Sammy now. Esperanza must've been one of his kids when he'd gotten married and moved to Texas. [i]_Wow_ that was an odd thing to say.

And then Leo… Somehow his grandson was a demigod, and Hazel had met up with him. It had to be fate or something demigod involved like that.

At the same time a small part of her was maybe… _disappointed_ that it wasn't Sammy. It was bad; and it wasn't fair to Sammy because he'd already lived his life through. It wasn't fair to Frank either, because she knew that he thought she didn't like him anymore; now that Sammy was back in play. And it wasn't fair to the world either; every person back from the dead was like another giant nail in the giant coffin that Gaia was building it.

_He grew up and moved to Texas. He married and had a family. But he never forgot you. He always wondered why you disappeared. He's dead now- a heart attack in the nineteen-sixties. The life you could've had together always haunted him. _

He grew up. He might've had Leo's mom as a daughter. Gotten a job doing something- doing whatever, nobody ever knew what to expect from him. But Sammy was out of her reach. She could try to get him back but her fingers would close around nothing unless it was offered by Gaia. And that wasn't even something Hazel considered healthy. Nothing she was willing to do.

She had to stop thinking of him as her best friend. She'd always remember him- and her definition of 'always' might not be that long- but she couldn't think of him in the present. It would hurt. And it would kill her. Literally.

Quinn

She and Hazel were cutting up peppers for… Quinn hadn't quite caught what they were making, but Hazel seemed to know what she was doing in a kitchen, so Quinn played along.

That made Quinn's heart tighten as she thought about her dad.

Quinn's family hadn't been religious even before the Roman gods had gotten involved. But Christmas cookies were always something they did. It was more iconic to her Christmas than a tree, or bunches of mistletoe.

The whole house smelled like the bakery itself; and it was closed that one day. Not even Grandma would work. They each made their own batches and played rock-paper-scissors for the oven. Her Dad hated baking, the family bakery had been a job he'd inherited and had to accept because his other options had been stolen or expired. But at Christmas he'd do it. Quinn always did the shortbread and double chocolate cookies, Grandma's gingerbread recipe would only be revealed on her death bed –or so she said-, and Dad tried new things every year. Sometimes Grandma put on Christmas music. Most of the time Quinn and her father talked about science and history and anything else Quinn had any questions about; and Grandma tuned them out because she couldn't understand a word.

She missed that last Christmas at home; the legion couldn't spare anyone. She wondered if Dad and Grandma had baked anyways, but she sort of doubted it.

A horrible thought drifted upon Quinn. She'd left Rome clandestinely with the Argo II. If they got back Quinn was sure that Jason and Percy and Reyna would be able to fix everything, and if they didn't get back Quinn's honour would be the last thing she'd worry about…But now? Octavian was in charge; she was sure of it. Her cohort had sprung up to his aid, but he was the brains, Joan was just brute strength. He knew exactly where she was from (he'd wanted her in his cohort so bad), and he was cold and calculated enough to do it but… Could Octavian get his hands on her dad? Could he somehow do something to him just to try and get her back to Rome for whatever punishment she deserved? She shivered. The voices were going to love that thought and twist it in her sleep. She knew it.

"You look tired." Hazel said.

"A bit," Quinn admitted. "So do you."

"Nightmares," Hazel said.

"Same thing." She said. She always said 'nightmares'. People just thought she had it really bad, and there were no questions about what else was disturbing her sleep.

"Well, Gaia's got a lot to haunt me about." Hazel said.

"Me too." Quinn found herself saying. Hazel just offered her a small smile as Quinn's face fell and she though _Styx what have I said? _But she guessed that Hazel knew more than well that it wasn't something you wanted to talk about.

"Do you think…? Never mind."

"No, what?" Quinn asked.

"Do you think all this… all this schist landed on top of us for a reason? Because we're here now?" Hazel asked. Quinn looked down at her hands in thought. Her hands that wouldn't ever hold a boys' because of a curse she didn't know the roots of.

"I think so," Quinn said. "I mean… It has to be for a reason. Everything is; life's not random."

Hazel looked down at her hands. Quinn wondered what her curse might be and who _that one_ had hurt, and how it'd stopped her.

"I hope it's not," Hazel said, before scrapping the peppers in a casserole.


	33. VI Reyna, Leo, Jason

VI

Reyna

July 9th: After Breakfast 

The door unlocked and a burst of sunshine came in, followed by a scarecrow like figure and a purple cape. Her fingers curled into fists. She tried to squeeze her hands through the chains on the wall, but that didn't do any good, as per usual.

Octavian just stood in front of her cell.

"Hello," he said. Reyna didn't say anything. He took a purple chain with a master key ring from around his neck, and Reyna nearly lost it. That was [i]_Jason's[/i] _key ring; how dare he take it! He unlocked the door of the cell, and stepped inside. Reyna wanted to punch him for what she was worth.

She was violent by nature, true. You couldn't blame her for that; but usually she didn't get these urges to hurt others around her. Not like she wanted to do to Octavian. She'd been stung- now she was a swarm of bees trapped in a terrarium.

"I know you're mad, and I can appreciate that, but can you please talk to me?" He asked.

"Screw you, Dalton." She said.

"Okay; please talk to me in coherent fashion," he said. "Polite, reasonable and such. Surely we can talk and make this work for both of us, [i]_and[/i] _the legion and people."

"How are they?" Reyna asked. She was forced to kneel most of the time; which meant that right now he underestimated how long her legs were and he was standing too close.

"Willing to talk?" He asked.

"No, but you'll do enough of that for both of us. How are the cohorts?"

"They're training." He said.

"All five of them?" Reyna said, wondering what kind of privileges he might have cut for the fifth. Maybe he'd stopped Gwen and Dakota from booking the Coliseum for sword practise, kicked them out of the war games, meals even…

"Of course all five of them." Octavian said.

"Training for what?" Reyna asked.

"That's for me to know."

"And for me to find out." Reyna said. She pushed off the ground and did a backflip, her arms extended since they were tied to chains, and her foot hit Octavian in the hip, running up to his cheek. She landed with one knee down, the chains all twisted. She smiled. That had been her first trick with the pirates around.

Octavian got to his feet, scowling and rubbing his cheek.

"What was that for?" He asked, trying to stay solid like he wasn't hurt.

"Personal satisfaction," Reyna said.

"You have a funny way of finding things out." Octavian said.

"Just boast about capturing me and leave." Reyna sighed.

"I thought you'd enjoy hearing the sound of something, even if it's my voice. You're always so keen on the outside world, on being out of these small tiny four walls…"

"I'm going to kick you again." Reyna said.

"No you're not," he dismissed. "The legion is training for the next step of the mission," he said casually taking a step back just in case she got ticked off again.

"Which would be?" Reyna asked.

"I don't have to do as you say," Octavian said. "You're the prisoner."

"And I'm horrible at it." Reyna said.

"Yes," Octavian said. "Seems like you've forgotten how."

"Shut up! Don't you dare bring that out- you have [i]_no idea[/i] _what the Pluto they did to us!" Reyna snapped at him. "You haven't seen half my scars, and those are the ones that actually show!"

"You're digging back in the negative emotions at least," Octavian said. "That's one thing."

"Why are you here?" Reyna growled. Octavian met her eyes and he was balanced between hate and something else.

"To check on you." He said shortly before spinning around and going back up the stairs.

Octavian Dalton was the most confusing of all the legionnaires Reyna had ever met.

Leo

"Come off of it," Cedric told Jane, which Leo thought was pretty brave considering she scared the life out of at least him.

"Off of what, exactly?" Jane demanded, crossing her arms.

"Oh, come on." Cedric said. "You and I both hate being here."

"No," Jane said. "See; you are a prisoner, I am an awed single praetor of Rome."

"I never said you hated Rome," Cedric said. "As a matter of fact; I didn't say I hated it either. I'm just saying, you think it's a waste of your time. This whole war. Which is great, because I think so too, so that's at least some common ground that'll stop you from killing me."

Jane's eyes flared.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I'm amazing," Cedric said. "And so I'm guessing you're just trying to get things over with right now. You know, end the battle."

Jane's eyes flared even more, and Leo had a strong urge to wake up before she'd explode or something.

"Do you know how many female praetors Rome has ever had?" Jane demanded. "For the fun of it; count in the empire too."

Cedric pondered for a bit, in the clear way that he wasn't going to answer.

"One. There has been one female praetor and you're looking at her." Jane said.

"Your mother must be so proud," he said.

"No, I'm actually disinherited," she said casually, "But do you know why that is?"

"Because your mother doesn't approve of swords and dirt and war or thinks you scowl way too much?" Cedric asked, cocking his head to one side. Jane scowled some more and Leo thought [i]_wow she looks like Dad sometimes… Or Nyssa when someone stupid does something stupid.[/i] _

"I was talking about the lack of feminine praetors," Jane said.

"Oh! Well, no idea." He said.

"That would be because girls don't get praetorships around here. Everything we pull of is twice as hard as it would be for a boy- and that's not because we're weak or feeble. It's because everything is put against us because some pigs think that we are and they've sustained it for so long that now they're just so, so afraid of being told wrong even if deep down they know. So you can imagine how hard I worked to be right here standing in front of you, if you have the brains for it; and you can guess how much I will not tolerate people who try to take that away from me." Jane said.

Leo thought he was looking at an Amazon and a hunter stuffed in a blender and then poured in a scowl-shaped mould, because that was what he saw when he looked at Jane.

"Alright," Cedric said. He looked serious for the first time in the conversation. "Okay, I respect that."

"Good. Then no, I'm not trying to 'get things over with'. But if you're right on one thing, boy, it's that I do want this war over with." Jane said. "And so far, you're the only ally I've found."

"How exciting." Cedric said. Jane raised an eyebrow and he went serious. "I mean, the same goes for me. So far nobody else seems to want to work it out or ceasefire."

"Exactly. And I'm going to have to make it work, even if it is you."

Jason

July 9th: Evening Of 

"For Jupiter's son, you look out at the sea a lot," Percy said. Jason turned to face his cousin, as he sat down on the railing.

"Not much else to look at, is there?" Jason asked.

"Doesn't matter what you're looking at," Percy said looking out at the ocean himself. "You're thinking about her."

"Who 'her'?" Jason said, although he knew that Percy did.

"You know," Percy said, "Reyna."

Jason wondered how far he could get away with pretending he wasn't.

"I shouldn't have let her stay behind. The two of us have a better chance in a fight than she does alone. Jupiter knows what's happened and happening to her." Jason said his mouth suddenly dry. "You don't know her as well as I do. You were right past the 'silence I kill you' stage with her when we left. She's strong, but she's not invulnerable or immortal. I don't want Octavian to hurt her."

"I get that," Percy said. "I swear I do. But… Well, Reyna's tough. She's also smarter than she looks; she'll get herself out of it."

"Octavian's going to dig deep and mess with her head Percy," Jason said. "He knows where she's from and what she's been through. He'll exploit that and he'll use it against her, and I don't know how she'll cope with that. She doesn't even like being in her own house for too long."

"She'll manage." Percy said. "Stop being paranoiac, she can take care of herself. You did what you had to; you did what you said you would. Look, I don't like her staying behind, so I'm imagining that you hate its guts-"

"I do."

"But Reyna will make it." Percy said. "And I can't say anything other than that because it's true."

Jason looked up at his cousin.

"Thanks, man. I guess you can see that my fatal flaw is trying to take care of everyone at once. Taking the world on my shoulders." He said, remembering the occasion where Lupa had told him during the last war.

"For what it's worth; there are two of us." Percy said, holding out his fist. Jason pumped it.

"So what's your fatal flaw?" Jason asked after a second.

"Personal loyalty. It nearly cost me twice. Athena hates me for it." Percy said. "Guess we can watch out for each other now." Jason nodded and then froze.

"Percy? I think that'll start now."

And he tackled Percy out of the way as a huge sea monster jumped from the ocean and crashed through the boat railing.


	34. VII Percy, Quinn

Today I just do _not _have time for anonymous reviews; but let me put in that I appreciate them all.

Except for one I missed last week: _Does Quinn only stutter when she's nervous or what? _(wording is screwed but concept is same)

Quinn stutters whenever she's not sure of an idea or doubting herself, when she's with new people, when she's nervous, and when she's just really tired. But it is posible to have a real conversation with her without any stutter.

* * *

><p>VII<p>

Percy

July 9th

Percy was noticing that most of his when-I-actually-talk-to-my-family-and-its-not-battle-trash-talk moments ended in something big and ugly jumping out at him.

He and Jason scrambled back- swords raised.

"What the heck is that?" Jason asked. The thing looked like one of those deranged salamander-like animal that Percy's science teacher had in his class. What were they called? Axolotls? Yeah; it looked like a white axolotl, with thin looking skin, four toes a paw, and six tentacles coming out of its head; with fuzzy pink fur. Percy was pretty sure that wasn't what they were called on an axolotl; but that was what this thing had. Except it had obsidian black teeth and a claw on each toe.

"Umm…" Percy said. "Axolotl! No, sea monster- get the others!"

"I think they heard!" Jason said, getting to his feet. "And what the heck is an axolotl?"

It roared and the sound was shrill.

A few seconds later, Annabeth, Leo, Quinn and Hazel popped up above deck. Ella shot up into the sky.

"Sea monster, bad sea monster, bad like cheese and weedwackers and Portland, kill it." Percy heard her mutter. Thank you, Ella…

"It's an axolotl!" Quinn said when she saw it.

"Thank you!" Percy said.

It swept its paw above deck and it hit nearly everything. Then Frank popped out from the middle of the deck- he must've been a small animal- and grabbed on to the paw that swept.

"Frank!" Hazel called. "Don't!"

"Give me room," Jason said. Piper got out of his way, and then he ran like a plane before take-off, and leapt up, the winds carrying him up to the beast's head.

Leo shot a long tendril of fire straight towards the monster as it brought Frank up. Its paw was black instantly, crisp like burnt toast. Percy's eyes sprawled and he really, really hoped Frank wasn't the one with the stick right now. The thing roared and Frank hauled himself up top, scrambling to its shoulders and grabbing on to a tentacle.

"Let go!" Jason yelled suddenly.

"Gods- Frank NOW!" Annabeth yelled too. Frank didn't question and just as his arms turned to black wings; crackling blue electricity crackled on its tentacles. Percy's instincts told him that that would have killed Frank. _He_ would have to be careful. The smallest bit of electricity could just zap him to death.

Jason leapt on its head next; electricity only made him stronger.

"Attack it on all fronts!" Annabeth said. "It's a low intelligence monster- I've already fought one with my brothers!"

Percy ran off deck and leapt into the water. The cool water woke up senses he didn't have on land and he willed the currents to bring him to the tail. From under- that must count as 'all fronts'.

He saw that the beast was sitting up straight like a dog, facing the ship, its tail going around in circles like an eggbeater to keep it balanced.

His head popped out from the water so he could get a prognosis, and he saw Frank picking up Piper- he was a giant eagle, like at Camp Jupiter. With strong and steady wing beats and flexible smooth flying, he got to the back. Then Piper let go of his talons and let herself fall. She landed on the head and grabbed onto a tentacle for a split second they weren't shooting out electricity, and then let herself slide to a spike on its back. Her eyes were wide with 'oh my gosh- what the heck am I doing?' but as long as she was doing it, she was fine.

Percy dove back down and drew Riptide, that'd reappeared in his pocket from when he'd dropped it on deck. He popped off the cap that went floating away, and ran Riptide through the closest foot. It started bleeding ichor- immortal blood- and kicking like Hades. It threw Percy back for a second but he swam back. He grabbed a leg in a bear hug, wrapping himself around it in very uncomfortable ways, and then summoned the force of the ocean.

_Down._

He was tugged down, and the monster with. It scrambled and broke the surface once more. Percy popped above the surface and the cool night air hit him like a bomb.

The monster was dripping ichor in three other spots now. Annabeth was on the monster's belly, her knife dug into the monster as a hand hold. He had no idea what her plan was, but he didn't doubt it. Most of her insane looking plans worked. As long as she didn't [i]_dare[/i] _get herself hurt.

A bird with talons like spears was poking at the beast's head. Hazel was standing on deck with her eyes closed, and whispering something, her fingers closed around her [i]_spatha[/i]_. Quinn was knelt, doing something or other, and Leo was shooting fire. The flames stopped and he started shaking his hand like he had pins and needles. He tried again but only sparks flew out. Percy saw the [i] '_Styx' _[/i] look in his eyes before he dove down again, to stab Riptide from under some more.

He saw Tyson was down there too. He nodded, Tyson nodded, and they both grabbed a leg and thought '_down'. _

That's when a… Treasure chest? Came flying up.

Quinn

She looked up nervously at everyone holding their own small bit.

[i]_Doesn't look too promising, does it? This could be disastrous. Lethal even. Goodbye to your sister, her boyfriend, your friends… What a painful, gruesome death. Speaking of painful and gruesome deaths; _[/i]

It was night of course. Don't expect a fight for her life to do anything but excite the voices.

[i]_-but if you think of how fast the blade would be swinging- _[/i]

Hazel was trying to summon something; Quinn could tell. Quinn then looked back down. This would work, this had to work…

[i]_Inches away from failure…_[/i]

A treasure chest shot out of the water and landed on deck, flying open at Hazel's feet.

"Yes!" Hazel cheered. She grabbed a few gold coins and threw them in the air in a shower of gold- except they were caught midair and their shapes changed. They went from round coins to gold nails and they all flew at the beast.

"Heads up!" She yelled. They flew into the beast's open mouth, one stayed put in its tooth, and the other landed in an eye. It roared in pain.

"Quinn!" Annabeth yelled.

[i]_See? They need you and you can't even provide that. What can you do, Quinn? What do you bring other than wasting their rations, space and time and patience?_ [i]

"Now!"

Quinn yelled back. Annabeth stopped easing her pressure off the dagger and let the monster's stomach slide open. Something like water suddenly sprouted out and washed like a wave all the way across the deck like a waterfall, dousing everybody. Her glasses were immediately covered in water and she was blinded. She threw them off; her vision wasn't perfect but it was enough for Quinn to throw what she'd been working on; explosives.

It was Quinn's secret weapon. Whenever she was fighting alone, she fell back on explosives because she didn't have any restrictions on any weapon. She could make them out of virtually nothing, somehow. She just knew how to connect wires and detonators and this and that; something she'd learnt on the run, with her brothers, and when she'd stumbled on a website that was most likely illegal, but really helpful. She'd been working on one, burrowed in her sleeping bag since she couldn't sleep.

It was harder because of the voices, and it wasn't a safe hobby but at times like this –watching a sea monster gag and choke and explode in golden dust- it was worth it.

Piper yelled and she started cascading towards the water, with no monster to hold onto. Jason started soaring down to catch her, but she broke the surface and he had to freeze and hover-he'd kill them both if he went in the ocean- and Annabeth had jumped from the sea monster to the boat as her dagger sliced the monster open. Her knees hit the railing, but her hands caught on and Quinn caught her hands, and she and Hazel managed to help her out. Quinn heard a splash, and she squinted to see Frank landing above deck, and Percy and Tyson coming from the water, Percy holding onto Piper.

They got to the boat and Leo had some rope down for them. Percy shot up on a water geyser, Piper's eyes sprawled, and Tyson was airlifted out by Frank.

There was a crumpling sound on deck.

"Dude- what do you _eat?_" Frank asked Tyson.

Piper climbed on deck, coughing and catching for breath.

"Never again," she promised them.

"That was exciting." Annabeth said. "Quinn, do you want your glasses back?"

"Yes please." Quinn said.

"Disgusting. I don't even want to know what the stuff that squirted out was." Hazel said, twisting her hair. A fair amount of the water dripped down from her mane of cinnamon, like a rag you used for the dishes. She squeezed on her baggy pyjama top, and it wasn't much better either. Quinn did the same. Her blond hair was just a little under 'soaked', but it could be worst.

"Other than that; is everyone okay?" Jason asked.

Leo just passed out on the spot.

"He used too much fire," Piper said. "It stopped working and now he's gone."

"I'll take his shift tonight," Jason volunteered. "He won't be happy about the boat."

The railing on the left side was collapsed; like dominos.

"I can go fish out the wood," Percy offered.

"I'll help." Frank said. He squeezed Hazel's hand quickly and Quinn had to notice that he whispered something to her. She nodded. It must've been 'are you okay?'

He turned into a dolphin at the edge of the ship, diving down like an Olympian.

"We're all good, Jason, chill." Piper said. But they were all so full of adrenaline; Quinn doubted any of them would. But the voices had crept away since her nightly explosion had worked. That made her smile a bit. Maybe she [i]was[/i] worth it.

"You're shaking; we need to get you dried up." Annabeth said, taking Piper by the shoulders and leading her downstairs.

"I'll bring Leo down," Jason offered, picking him up in a fireman's carry.

Ella landed.

"Tyson okay," she checked immediately.

"Yes Ella," he said patiently. She nodded compulsively and they walked off, leaving Hazel and Quinn on their own.

"Where did you learn to make bombs?" Hazel asked.

"My brothers, the Internet, a bit of self-education," Quinn said. Hazel nodded and looked back at the treasure chest.

"Do you want to help me haul this overboard?" She asked.

"Why? It's a treasure chest- it might have some huge historical value!" Quinn said.

"It's unlucky. No use learning from it if it'll hurt somebody."

Quinn nodded.

[i]_She's cursed. But she admits it and lives with it. What kind of half-blood does that make you? _[/i]

Quinn took her end of the chest, her fingers closing around a huge copper ring

"Timbers!" Hazel yelled. And they pushed it overboard, jewels and coins and gemstones raining out as the chest fell. It made an enormous splash.

"You could've killed a guy!" Percy yelled back up.

"I said Timbers!" Hazel replied. "I think that all boys are at least half deaf." She told Quinn. She grinned.

"We should probably get changed into dry clothes too," Quinn said. "Hypothermia would suck."

And they went down, waving goodnight to Jason who was on his way back up.

And the voices were so brought down by Quinn's victory… She got two hours of sleep.

She woke up smiling.


	35. VII Piper, Annabeth, Frank, Piper

VIII

Piper

July 9th (night)- 10th

Demigods were like soda. When they got shaken up during the day, their dreams tended to explode.

Did Piper expect it? Not any more than she had the first time the dream swung around. But she recognised him. Dark hair, dark eyes, square jaw, scars on his arms like those people who get a million tattoos… She'd seen a lot of demigods with that later feature; but she'd never seen anybody like him. He was dribbling a soccer ball, bouncing it off his knees, feet, head, shoulders, knee again…

"What a boy," somebody said. She spun around and saw a woman whose features were blurry to Piper, leaving not details but impressions of beauty in her mind. She wore a deep purple blouse and dark jeans this time around.

"Mom?" Piper asked.

"Hey sweetie. Like last time okay? I'm not here, never was." The goddess winked.

"Why are you taking such great risks to show me a guy?" Piper asked. An extremely gorgeous guy, with mad soccer skills and a look of intense concentration in his eyes- but still, why?

"Because he's not just a boy," Aphrodite said simply.

Annabeth

Both Leo's hammer hitting against the Argo II as he fixed the railing, and Percy's hand messing with her hair as she read had become a rhythm to Annabeth; something to help her focus with. But she wasn't focusing on the lines in the book, she was thinking back to her dream.

She'd been standing on an island in the middle of the sea. She'd heard that someone's surroundings could change their dreams; if your neighbour's dog was barking your subconscious slipped it into your dreams. But she didn't think this was it.

She looked down. She was wearing a white dress. She owned precisely one dress and it was _not _white, and it'd been for a school dance.

"What's going on?" She spoke out loud; knowing there was someone listening, or more along the lines of feeling it.

"You know," somebody said. Annabeth spun around; her hand going for a dagger that her instincts had forgotten wasn't there. She saw Hera, in a gold silk dress, her hair done in braids, and her wrists and neck bejewelled. She held a lotus topped staff and there was a type of diadem on her head.

"Hera," Annabeth said, trying not to sound venomous.

"Annabeth," Hera said. And then she smiled. That set Annabeth off; this wasn't good.

"Why are you high jacking my dreams?" She asked.

"I thought you'd have it tough enough for the next little while," Hera said. "I spare you one night exactly before it starts."

"Before what starts?" Annabeth asked. Hera nodded. This was stupid; Hera wasn't like some other gods who overestimated what you knew or what you'd been told; she knew exactly what. She just wouldn't tell Annabeth.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "I still don't understand why this necessitated me being on an island in a dress."

Hera sighed.

"Annabeth, you've studied myths. You know what I've done and why I've done it; and I believe that deep down you understand it. Maybe better than I do when I dare look back at what rage or jealousy has led me to do. You know I never have simple motives."

"Revenge," she said.

"Is never easy," Hera said. "Do you think it's every time that another woman or a child that isn't mine is involved that I strike? Of course it isn't; I'd have worn my heart and power to shreds. Some things build, feelings and weariness. And when you have enough…"

"It's enough," Annabeth said. Hera nodded as Annabeth thought back to the Titan War. When she'd seen Percy fighting Luke and felt Luke fighting Kronos and Percy fighting that too… She'd hated the trio of them after 3 years of silently taking it and trying to push aside the fact two guys that'd changed her life were battling for the other's head.

"Exactly," Hera said. "And this quest… It's a lot like that. Bless Jason and Percy, without them the introductions would've been so much more slippery but sometimes… Well, sometimes things build up on their own."

"And they break down just like that," Annabeth finished. Hera nodded which meant that any time now…

"I know we've had our differences," Hera said. "We've actually had moments of polarisation. But Annabeth; you're a bright girl, which is why I'm glad he chose you."

"'He'? Who do you mean 'he'?"

Hera went on, "What Brooke Dalton told you in New Rome; that you'd make the right choice… I believe that. Which is why I admire you, because it isn't easy; especially for mortals. Gods forget that they don't have centuries to come back from a hard throw."

"I'm guessing I'll find out what you're talking about sooner or later." Annabeth said. Hera nodded.

"Well… I appreciate it." Annabeth said. Hera nodded. "But I have one more question."

"I'll try to answer." Hera said. The politeness was forced; obviously neither one of them wanted to set off the other.

"The prophecy is called 'The Prophecy of Seven' for a reason. Why are there eight half-bloods, a harpy, and a Cyclops on the ship, then? Quinn and I are here by mistake but…"

"You aren't there by accidents or security concerns," Hera said. "You both have parts to play outside the box, but still woven into the bigger picture."

"So who's number seven?" Annabeth asked. Hera pursed her lips.

"She will come when it's her time. That's the only occasion where you can expect anything from her."

_Her, it's a her…_ Annabeth took notice.

"She'll seem unlikely, but it's her. Don't doubt what she can do, even if it's unobvious." Hera warned.

"Alright," Annabeth said. She'd learnt not to doubt half-bloods. Look at innocent little Hazel being back from the dead and summoning treasure from a thousand leagues under the sea, playful and pathetically funny Leo who burst into flames at a moment's notice, shy Quinn who made explosives…

"Good luck, and goodbye," Hera had said.

Even now, sitting in the moon sunlight, Annabeth was still analysing details and words and coming up empty handed. Except for one small thing.

"Percy?" She said.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I had a dream about Hera."

Percy froze. He must be thinking of the last dream with Hera he'd had.

"What about it?" He asked.

"She told me… The seventh demigod is a 'she' apparently." Annabeth said.

"You or Quinn?" Percy asked.

"Neither of us. She's not here yet."

"Well it'll be hard for her to come when we're in the middle of the Atlantic." Percy said. Annabeth shrugged.

"I never said I knew what that was about."

There was the shrill cry of an eagle and they both looked up.

"Jason. Jason wake up." Percy said, throwing Riptide at his cousin who'd fallen asleep against the stable railing from taking twenty shifts last night. He sat up, the pen in his hand. He tossed it back to Percy.

"What?" He asked. His eyes turned to the skies too. Hazel and Quinn came up from downstairs, Leo stopped whacking his hammer against the boat and Piper put down the flight log she was designated to keep; just as an eagle landed and turned into a frowning Frank.

"Umm- guys?" He said. "Yeah, we have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Percy asked.

"Land dead ahead." He said.

Frank

That was him; messenger of doom and misery.

"Okay Frank, anything other than land? People? Buildings? Cities?" Annabeth asked him.

"Umm… No."

"Did you look?" Hazel asked.

"Umm… No."

"Do you guys want to check it out?" Jason asked.

"It sort-of has 'Death trap' all over it, doesn't it?" Piper asked. Ella perched on the railing.

"Land. _Land of the free and home of the brave. _Home. Percy's home, Annabeth's home, Piper's home, Leo's home… _I'm coming home, coming home, tell the world I'm-_"

"Ella- what do you mean _their _home? This can't be Camp Half-Blood!" Quinn said. Next to Tyson, she was always the first to catch up to what Ella said, understanding the harpy while the rest of them cocked their heads and went 'hun?'

"Yep, yep, yep…" Ella said. "Camp- campfire song-_ A carelessly abandoned campfire or a campfire built without safe clearance can turn a small fire into a dangerous and fast-moving blaze. Be sure to build your campfire in a way that does not endanger anyone or the surrounding forest. Enjoy a safe campfire by following these campfire safety tips… [.com/divisions-prevention-campfire-safety-guidelines]"_

"Ella are you… Oh gods…" Annabeth said.

Or it was Annabeth. Children of the wisdom goddess just messed with Frank's mind, actually. He felt so good about his grades- then he found out that Quinn had taught herself the hardest concept of his grade from a book. When she was twelve. Actually, most of the girls were really good at decrypting Ella's mumble, which was really creepy, but also useful.

"What is it? You've got an idea?" Piper asked.

"I've got something but it's crazy." Annabeth said.

Leo steered them towards the island.

"That's as close as I'm getting with this," Leo said.

"I think only Greek campers should go," Jason said. "Just… Just in case this _is _Camp Half-Blood."

"That's ridiculous; Percy said it was in New York." Hazel said. "We are _not _in New York right now."

"Which means that this isn't the Camp Jason went to; which means it isn't the Camp that's okay with Romans." Annabeth said.

"He's right." Quinn nodded. She walked up to Percy and put something metal and the size of a match box in his hand. She whispered something to him, but Frank didn't get it, because Leo spoke up.

"Alright; don't push any buttons on my boat," he said.

"Don't worry, we wouldn't dream of it." Hazel said.

"Okay, Piper, Leo hold hands…" Percy said.

"Excuse me?" Piper said.

"If you want to breathe underwater…" He said.

"Oh, never mind." She said taking Leo's hand and dragging him towards Percy. He took Annabeth and Piper's hands.

"We'll be back as soon as we can," Annabeth said. "Don't leave the boat no matter what. If things get really bad, Leo's going to send a smoke signal and you have to leave _without us._"

"W-without you?" Quinn asked.

"Worst case scenario," Annabeth said. "If we're all dying and they're coming to get you guys."

"Then I give you permission to push any button on my boat you think you need." Leo said.

"You're a bit pessimistic, now aren't you?" Piper said. Frank agreed with Piper.

"It's a precaution," Annabeth defended.

"That we won't need," Percy said for the sake of Leo who was looking like 'crud, why did I have to be Greek right now?'

And with that they plunged in the water.

Piper

Last time Piper had plunged into water, it hadn't been all that pleasant. But Percy quickly got tiny of silver balls to zoom at them- gods- what were those? They suddenly grouped around Piper's mouth and nose, and she saw that it did the same with Annabeth and Leo. She could breathe! Air bubbles!

_Less work, _she heard Percy say in her mind. Okay, she could read Percy's mind. Kind of odd… Okay; very odd… Especially when she started hearing about _last time _he'd done that trick…

She heard Annabeth hit him and suddenly it was over. Leo was snickering.

_Shut up Valdez or you're not going to breathe anymore._

They started zooming underwater. It felt as if Piper was surfing underwater- and actual surfing, not her pathetic excuse for it. A flock of dolphins came and made shrill noises that Piper was sure she wouldn't be able to hear if she weren't holding hands with the son of Poseidon. Percy's sea powers were spreading to her through his touch. Percy made the same shrill sounds back; talking to them.

A school of brightly coloured fish came by, and they swam through a coral reef. Piper saw fish in colours that she didn't know existed under the sea, plants that she'd only seen in books, creatures that she'd never thought she'd see this close seeing how dangerous this was- there was even an eel that looked at her darkly before leaving. She realised just how big of a world Percy had at his fingertips. He could suddenly swim into Camp's beach and see this. Talk to some dolphins. See this beauty…

Suddenly they could all have their heads above water if they stood on their toes, their feet sinking in the sand.

"Come on," Percy said. He kicked off the ground and in a perfect front crawl, he headed for the island. Immediately Piper was soaked.

"You guys can swim, right?" Annabeth checked. They both agreed and Annabeth started swimming after her boyfriend. Piper and Leo followed. Once they were out of the water, she squeezed the water from her braid.

"Seaweed brain, do us a favour," Annabeth called. He turned away from the skyline, and just by poking Piper in the arm, all the water in her clothes, hair and skin jumped off and leapt into the ocean; same with Leo.

"Wow, you're good." Piper said. Percy grinned at her.

"Let's go," Annabeth said.

They adventured into the forest, each holding their own weapon drawn. Piper was nervous. Forests were full of quicksand and trees, imperfections in the ground… The whole boat was so they could stay off of land, for crying out loud!

They each held their own weapons, so Piper was guessing they all felt it.

Piper stopped.

"I smell meat," she said. She could recognise the smell of meet anywhere since driving by the slaughterhouse had scared her away from it.

"You're right," Annabeth said.

"Can someone say 'cannibal island tribe'?" Leo asked.

"Sometimes you've got to keep these puns to yourself or the girl on the quest hits you." Percy whispered to Leo. Annabeth must've heard, because she hit him in the arm without even looking back.

"It's that way," she decided. They followed their noses and pushed through one last tree, with leaves like green barbwire in bunches, greener than Piper had ever seen in non-magical places. Their jaws all dropped.

The island was climbing in a mountain and a whole camp was nestled in the mountains. Piper squinted. There were flat-roofed Greek houses, open-air pavilions and an arena dotting the mountainside where land had been flat enough to build. One of the building that spat out smoke through several chimneys; she could see paths leading up and down, various obstacle courses built in no particular fashion; like they'd been added on when needed, or when someone had come up with them. There were various orchards and a field of wheat in a large dome-like area, grapes, apples... A creek poured down the mountain, like a waterslide, and Piper saw tiny dots in it; like that was how people were using it.

"No way…" Percy said. Annabeth didn't look surprised. She crinkled her nose.

"I think we just found Camp Half-Blood." She said.

"That… That's in New York…" Piper said trying to shake an idea from her head.

"I meant the First Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. "The one where it all started."


	36. VII Frank, Piper, Malcolm, Reyna

XIII

Frank

Leo steered them towards the island.

"That's as close as I'm getting with this," Leo said.

"I think only Greek campers should go," Jason said. "Just… Just in case this_ is_ Camp Half-Blood."

"That's ridiculous; Percy said it was in New York." Hazel said. "We are_ not_ in New York right now."

"Which means that this isn't the Camp Jason went to; which means it isn't the Camp that's okay with Romans." Annabeth said.

"He's right." Quinn nodded. She walked up to Percy and put something metal and the size of a match box in his hand. She whispered something to him, but Frank didn't get it, because Leo spoke up.

"Alright; don't push any buttons on my boat while I'm gone," he said.

"Don't worry, wouldn't dream of it." Hazel said.

"Okay, Piper, Leo hold hands." Percy said.

"Excuse me?" Piper said.

"If you want to breathe underwater…" He said.

"Oh, never mind." She said taking Leo's hand and dragging him towards Percy. He took Annabeth and Piper's hands.

"We'll be back as soon as we can," Annabeth said. "Don't leave the boat no matter what. If things get really bad, Leo's send a smoke signal and you have to leave _without us."_

"W-without you?" Quinn asked.

"Worst case scenario," Annabeth said. "If we're all dying and they're coming to get you guys."

"Then I give you permission to push any button on my boat you think you need." Leo said.

"You're a bit pessimistic, now aren't you?" Piper said. Frank agreed with her.

"It's a precaution," Annabeth defended.

"That we won't need," Percy said for the sake of Leo who was looking like 'crud, why did I have to be Greek right now?'

And with that they plunged in the water.

Piper

Last time Piper had plunged into water, it hadn't been all that pleasant. Like, sharing her personal space with a giant sea monster that looked like some axolotl or whatever Quinn and Percy had agreed on. But Percy quickly got tiny of silver balls to zoom at them, or at least she assumed it was Percy- gods- what were those? They suddenly grouped around Piper's mouth and nose, and she saw that it did the same with Annabeth and Leo. She could breathe! Air bubbles!

Less work, she heard Percy say in her mind. Okay, she could read Percy's mind. Kind of odd… Okay; very odd… Especially when she started hearing about _last time_ he'd done that trick…

She heard Annabeth hit him and suddenly it was over. Leo was snickering.

_Shut up Valdez or you're not going to breathe anymore._

They started zooming towards the shore line. It felt as if Piper was surfing underwater- and actual surfing, not her pathetic excuse for it.

A flock of dolphins came and made shrill noises that Piper was sure she wouldn't be able to hear. Percy's sea powers were spreading to her through his touch. Percy made the same shrill sounds back; talking to them. A school of brightly coloured fish came by, and they swam through a coral reef. Piper saw fish in colours that she didn't know existed under the sea, plants that she'd only seen in books, creatures that she'd never thought she'd see this close seeing how dangerous they were- there was even an eel that looked at her darkly before leaving. She realised just how big of a world Percy had at his fingertips. He could just decide to spontaneously swim into Camp's beach and see this. Talk to some dolphins. See this beauty…

After a bit less than ten minutes they could all have their heads above water if they stood on their toes, their feet sinking in the sand.

"Come on," Percy said. He kicked off the ground and in a perfect front crawl, he headed for the island. Immediately Piper was soaked and her clothes were heavy, but she remembered the red cross swimming lessons the Wilderness school had got, and her arms and legs were even stronger now.

"You guys can swim, right?" Annabeth checked. They both agreed and Annabeth started swimming after her boyfriend. Piper and Leo followed. Once they hit the shallow end they just waddle there, and when they were out of the water, she squeezed the water from her braid. A huge splotch of water dripped onto the sand, as if her hair were a sponge.

"Seaweed brain, do us a favour," Annabeth called. He turned away from the skyline, and just by poking Piper in the arm, all the water in her clothes, hair and skin jumped off and leapt into the ocean. Same with Leo.

"Wow, you're good." Piper said. Percy grinned at her.

"Let's go before you feed his ego too much," Annabeth said.

They adventured into the forest, each holding their own weapon drawn. Piper was nervous. Forests were full of quicksand and trees, imperfections in the ground… The whole boat was so they could stay off of land, for crying out loud, and here they were on the tropics!

They each held their own weapons, so Piper was guessing they all felt it.

Piper stopped.

"I smell meat," she said. She could recognise the smell of meet anywhere since driving by the slaughterhouse had scared her away from it.

"You're right," Annabeth said.

"Can someone say 'cannibal island tribe'?" Leo asked.

"Sometimes you've got to keep these puns to yourself or the girl on the quest hits you." Percy whispered to Leo. Annabeth must've heard, because she hit him without looking back.

"It's that way," she decided. They followed their noses and pushed through one last tree, with leaves like green barbwire in bunches, greener than Piper had ever seen in non-magical places.

They hiked up the mountain. Piper saw a tall flagpole with an orange banner on top. It looked like a cloth pole; like you saw around runways for planes. It must be like a beacon, to show demigods running for their lives that they were coming closer and closer to a sanctuary. That must be why the shirts were orange, she realised. He'd always wondered why. Orange didn't really say 'stealth' or 'I am here to kick your butt'.

They got to the edge of the village.

"This is…" Percy said.

"I know," Annabeth said. She blinked a lot, like she was trying to get her own memories of camp out of her head so she'd see this clearly. The mess of white buildings and obstacle courses, balance beams, ropes hanging off high trees with kids trying to bring down hanging sandals…

A guy came forwards after spotting them, wearing a mix of armour and chiton or whatever the Greek version of a tunic was.

"May I help you?" He asked. He looked at their clothes frowning.

"Umm… Sure… My name is Percy…"

"Perseus," Annabeth cut. He looked at her like 'what?' Piper got it. This guy was Ancient Greek; might as well sound like they were too.

"Yeah… Perseus…" Percy said as if he got the message. "This is…"

"Athene," Annabeth decided, "And these two are Penelope and Leonidas." Piper nearly chocked. Penelope? Oh geez!

"Are you half-bloods?" He asked.

"Yes." Annabeth said. He smiled.

"I'm Seth, son of Zeus."

"That explains it," Percy mumbled.

"Right this way," he said. He led them through the camp and they crossed each other's glances wondering where this was going to go. Piper thought; not that well.

"How long have you been traveling?" Seth asked them.

"A bit." Percy said.

"Lost track," Piper said.

"Mmm. At least you found each other." Seth said.

"Oh yeah," Leo said. "These two are really thankful." He asked waving towards Percy and Annabeth.

Percy hit Leo upside the head and Annabeth kicked his chin.

"They didn't [i]date[/i] in Ancient Greece, they just got married." She said between clenched teeth. "Don't say a word."

Luckily Seth ignored them, and he brought them into a house that Piper determined to be the Big House.

"Umm, we don't separate the rooms between girls and boys here- so just a heads up for something that will some getting used to…" Seth said. Piper frowned. Was that another Ancient Greek tradition? My god, she thought.

"No problem," Annabeth said.

"Great. Chiron will be with you in just a minute." Seth said.

"_Chiron?"_ They all said at once.

Malcolm

July 10th

He stepped into the Big House quietly.

"Malcolm- quiet was never one of your strength." A shaky voice said. Malcolm turned to Chiron in the rec room.

His paternal grandmother had died of Parkinson. It'd been quick and deadly and he remembered a month or two after the diagnosis, how much she'd changed. Wheelchair bound, laboured breathing, tired eyes, wrinkles that hadn't been there before…

Chiron was like that now; except he wasn't sick. He was just dying.

"I thought you might be sleeping." Malcolm said with a built in 'forgive me'. Chiron didn't like to be treated any different now than before, even if Malcolm saw no other solution. And since he didn't; nobody else did.

"Have any Iris-messages gone through to the Romans yet?" Chiron asked. Malcolm shook his head.

"None," Malcolm said. "But Butch said that now that everyone knows about everyone; it should work."

"What of Nyssa's machine?" Chiron asked.

"Nothing either." Malcolm said. "The senate is empty every time. Nyssa was yelling into it for three hours, but nothing happened. Nobody came."

Chiron sighed.

"I could try and contact Lupa…"

"That would be hard on you!" Malcolm said. Chiron's eyes darkened.

"Child, what good is it to keep me alive, if I am only alive to weigh on you all?" He asked.

Reyna

July 10th

She'd gotten back in your average prisoner's routine.

Wake up.

Wait for food.

Get food.

Eat. With the bonus add that now, Reyna's two hands were caught by heavy ceiling chains; meaning she was spoon fed. It was amazingly humiliating and aggravating. Sometimes she got smoothies or power shakes or whatever and someone would just hold the cup and straw for her. They'd gotten the memo about her kicking habit after she did that to two other legionnaires from the first cohort, and they now usually had someone holding her legs down too. That was pretty bad as well, but it could be her daily dose of entertainment when they held on for dear life as she tried to shake them off.

Octavian would then come. At first it was only once in a while, but after the fifth day or so of her capture, he came every day, and she didn't think that would really change.

She'd talk to him. He was actually not that bad sometimes. Every now and then he told her about what was happening outside. How Dakota and Gwen were doing, how there was no news from the gods, et cetera, et cetera. It was humane of him.

He'd leave.

Cuss him. Cuss Joan. Cuss whoever else she felt like cussing for the day. It was all in her own head after all.

She heard the conch horns that meant lunch. Only then did she know what time it was exactly. Octavian's visits were after her breakfast, and that was after the legionnaires ate because they had to eat before worrying about her; so she at least knew that. But the conch horns told her when it was muster, evening, curfew… She tried to sleep at curfew and stay up for the day.

She'd spend some time humming. Just a 'hmmm' sound so she wouldn't go crazy or freak out the next time she heard human noise. She'd learnt that with Blackbeard; the trick had kept her sane. She got shivers when she remembered Hylla's initial mental state. That'd taken a long time, and a lot of water.

She'd do flips or walk around as much as she could just to keep her muscles awake and alive, even if the lack of training filled her mouth with venom.

Wait for supper.

Get supper. Same as breakfast- her other meal.

Wait until muster, and try to remember if tonight was war games, deathball, or what (Octavian would tell her the next morning).

Curfew would sound; she'd try to sleep.

That was slowly but surely getting to her. Usually her days included a lot of exercises and moving around a _lot_. Doing a lot of things with or for a lot of people, and barely breathing in between. That was just part of who she was, what her duties were, and what she needed as a person. This was about as much of a polar opposite as what you could get.

As for her claustrophobia… She hated to admit it being there, but it was. Some days she'd wake up and suddenly she was panicking like she never panicked anywhere else, or she got seized by vertigo. She'd even thrown up once, but she bit her lip and gave herself the strictest orders she'd ever gotten against screaming or crying or whimpering. No. They would not know.

Some days she was okay, but others, she kept her eyes shut. As if not seeing the four walls meant they'd disappear or that they weren't there. It made her feel week and lame. But she didn't have a choice; she had to stay strong and not lose her mind. And if staying strong meant closing her eyes, humming, and keeping her memories going; then so be it.

She remembered one time with Jason, the last time that'd ever happened, after he'd come back, the night before the Argo II took off…

_She knocked on his door, knowing he would still be awake. He answered._

_"Rey?" He asked._

_"I can't sleep." She said. So he went to get his blanket from his bed, just like she had hers, and they'd wrap themselves in their own and lie down in the grass between both houses._

_Not many people knew about that, because not many people knew about her claustrophobia. They knew where she was from, but nobody seized quite how life-changing that had been to her, and how it had left its mark. But Jason did, which was why they could just lie there for hours, looking at the stars. Jason would point out the constellations Lupa had shown him, and Reyna would add those that she'd heard the sailors and pirates talk about._

_Tonight wasn't much different. Unless you counted the fact Jason's arm was around her, and she had her head on his chest this time. They were openly in love now, after all. It wasn't about Reyna trying to stay solid anymore, they just were. And she liked it better that way_

_"Jason?" She asked._

_"Yeah?"_

_"Is Venus in the sky tonight?" She asked._

_"I think it's right here." He said._

_"Mars Almighty, you can be so cheesy." She said. "I meant the planet."_

_"Maybe. I don't know, I'm not really looking at the stars." Jason said._

_"Okay, maybe cheesy is good," she said when he kissed the top of her head._

_Eventually, lying in the grass, in an open place with no walls, with someone she trusted with her life, she always felt at peace and fell asleep. It was just something that happened. But she slept so much better with his arm around her._

_Sunrise always woke them up since there was nothing shielding the light from them, which meant that they were back inside before the legionnaires woke up and could ever find out._

_They never did._

She heard a door squeak open and Octavian walked down.

That was a breach in the schedule.

Her mouth still filled with poison when she saw him there, wearing the purple cloak, and the symbols and all of it. Don't get her wrong; she hadn't changed a bit. She still wanted to do bad things to him. But… If she tuned out everything horribly wrong… She could… _tolerate_ him.

In no time they'd gotten to a conversation that Reyna was only participating in to see if she could milk out any information about the Argo II.

Octavian didn't get that, and he just talked like she was cool to talk to. Which she wasn't, because she barely talked unless she had to, or unless she was with people she trusted. So not right now.

"Where's the Argo II?" She finally asked. Octavian's face darkened.

"I don't know."

"Have you talked to the Greeks?" She asked. "Perhaps they have means of controlling their ship. That Leo Valdez looked smart."

"No."

"Have you even tried?"

"That's none of your concern," Octavian said.

"You're wrong. It is. Because I'm always going to be the praetor, because I'm the one they _chose_. It's never going to be you or Joan because the people lost all respect for you. It's always going to be me. And Jason."

Octavian's face darkened at Jason's name and he just spun around and left for the day.

Suddenly with nobody there but her, her in the tiny space, the vertigo caught up to her, and her stomach lurched to the left.

* * *

><p>Octavian sat down at the table where Gwen sat and waited for Dakota and Bobby. She looked up at Octavian with a colder eye than most people thought was physically possible for Gwendolyn Holly.<p>

"The praetor's table is over there," she said simply.

"I came to talk, Gwen."

"That's Gwendolyn to you," she said. She met Octavian's eye and a shiver went down his spine. She knew she's nearly died because of his _pilum_. "Or Centurion Holly. Gwen is a nickname for friends and family, and I pride myself with being neither of them with you."

"That's cold." Octavian said.

"You're cold Octavian. What do you want me to say?"

"Tell me about Jason and Reyna." He said. Gwen lifted an eyebrow.

"They're both 16, they've known each other for about three years, they were raised on shields as praetors of Rome last August…"

"I meant _together_." Octavian said. Gwen sat up straighter and with a shake of her head pushed her hair behind her shoulder.

"I know nothing about it," Gwen said.

"You're her best friend," Octavian said. "Talk to me."

"They scare me," Gwen said. "And I say it shamelessly. They move together, they think together, they fight together, they understand each other… But what should scare _you_, Octavian, is that they love each other. They won't give up on one another, and they fight hard Octavian. They fight harder for each other."

"That's not what I wanted to hear." He said.

"Well, it's what you asked." Gwen said. "And it's the mess you walked straight into."

Octavian got up and left before anything else could be said. He bumped into Dakota.

"Are you giving her trouble?" Dakota asked him, scowling over him.

"Why I talk to the legion's centurions is none of your concern," he said coldly.

"Leave Gwen alone," he said, "Or I'll put you in such a state _you'll_ be alone in the Underworld's fields of-"

"Back off, Whyte." A gruff voice said. Octavian turned around to see Joan standing there menacingly. Ready to support Octavian, as always.

"Who died and made you praetor? Oh yeah; that's right, you locked one in the dungeon and sent the other running so he could save the world." Dakota said.

"Dakota!" Gwen took his arm, and whispered something in his ear. It calmed him down and he accepted her leading him back to one of the fifth cohort's tables, where his cohort took him in and melted around him, ready to protect.

"What were you doing talking to scum from the fifth?" Joan asked him.

"Research," Octavian said after a second of pondering on the right word.

"On who?" She asked crossing her arms. Octavian's nose crinkled and his scowl deepened.

"On Reyna Bell." He said.


	37. VIII Percy, Jason, Frank

**I'm posting on Tuesdays! Woohoo! **

**Actually, it's 'cause I have a theory article I want to post, but I don't want that theory to ruin this story, so I'm trying to get this out faster. How selfish of me.**

**Plus I realise that the last one is short, and I've got not one, but two very mean cliffhangers here that I rather you guys wait until Friday for than waiting from Friday to Friday.**

**Another thing: I shouldn't be posting fanfiction right now (or watching YouTube book reviews [even if they're about HoO and even if they diss Dylan], or sitting at a computer), so not sure if I'll get to the Fanpop version of this (which means adding the [i]-[/i] for bolding) so I'm sorry if I don't get to that tonight. Maybe I'll just drop the [i][/i] this one chapter.**

**Enjoy! **

* * *

><p>VIV<p>

Percy

July 10th

Seth smiled at them like he'd heard it before. _Definitely _a son of Zeus.

"I see you've heard of him already."

"Oh yeah, we've heard _plenty _about Chiron_." _Leo said. Piper elbowed him to be more discreet.

"I'll go tell him we have four new students," Seth said. "Wait here. Don't wander in or… Or touch anything."

"Alright," Percy said. Seth eclipsed himself from the room and we all turned to Annabeth.

"And you had an _idea_ that this was happening?" Leo asked. "Umm… How?"

"Things that haven't been around for years are coming back. Things that are supposed to be dead are alive. This is just one of them." She said, uneasy.

"Yeah, but we can't kill it!" Leo said. "I mean… It's camp!"

"I don't think so," Piper said. "Seth called us what, students?"

"Yeah," Percy said. "What, you don't think it's a camp?"

"Summer Camps are more… Modern… Annabeth, what did you say camp started as? You told me at camp." Piper said.

"You're right," Annabeth said. "It started as Chiron, simply living in the mountain. Heroes started coming for help, and eventually, he took in all the half-bloods. Like a routine; someone would come, he'd take them in. And then the buildings expanded from Chiron's house to a camp. It was called a school until it went into a military phase. Then they called it 'camp' like 'military camp', and then when kids only went for the summer because of school, it became 'camp' like we think of a summer camp."

"Okay, Annabeth, that's great. But that doesn't solve the problem of 'why is it here'? They're demigods. They'd be on our sides, wouldn't they? Why would Gaia bring them back?" Percy asked.

"Well…" Annabeth hesitated. "Gaia said she was keeping _you _safe. And you're on our side."

Percy froze and thought about that. He still didn't know what that meant; he just knew it was really bad. Then again, most plans immortals made for him ended up to be really badly.

"It doesn't matter; let's just get out of here." Leo said. "I don't like this."

"We're here for a reason," Piper said. "We might as well figure it out. Maybe Chiron here knows something that could help us."

"Yeah, or he'll call us lunatics." Leo offered.

"No, it's Chiron. He believes half-bloods. He knows we don't lie about weird stuff happening to us, because we don't _have _to lie about-"

The door opened again and they all spun around and tried to look casual as a centaur trotted in. Percy shut up and his jaw dropped. Seth wasn't kidding, it was Chiron. Except instead of one of his t-shirts he wore a chest plate, his hair was longer than Percy's ever seen it. He had a quiver over his shoulder, as if Seth had dragged him away from the archery range. But the one thing that stroke Percy as different from the teacher he remembered were his eyes. Chiron always looked in his thirties or so, but right now, his eyes looked young as well.

"Hello," Chiron said. "You must be the newest half-bloods. Perseus, Penelope, Athene and Leonidas if I am not mistaken from what Seth told me."

"Can we pretend my name is Leo? I like Leo much more." Valdez spoke up. Percy was going to hit him, but he decided against it.

Chiron ignored Leo's little comment.

"Welcome," Chiron said. "Come in, take a seat. If you came here on foot, I assume you're tired." Chiron said. He said it as if he didn't know Camp was a jungle trek and climb from the ocean. As if he expected more…

They sat down on some Ancient chairs that weren't too comfortable. Percy was about to put his arm around Annabeth and then he remembered what Annabeth had said about not dating. He didn't want Chiron to think he was married, that would be most extraordinarily awkward.

"As Seth might have told you my name is Chiron." He said.

"We know," Annabeth said. "We heard all about it, and we figured out the mist, scents, and so forth on our way. We connected the dots by exchanging puzzle pieces with each other." Percy was thankful. He wasn't sure how much he'd have really tolerated hearing the 'welcome to our world' speech again.

"I see," Chiron said. "Do you know your immortal parents as well? Where are you from?"

"Sparta," Leo and Piper said at once. It was probably the only Greek city-state they knew.

"I mean, he's from Sparta, I'm from… Athens." Piper said. Chiron nodded and turned to Percy and Annabeth.

"Crete." Percy said, to be original.

"Sicyon," Annabeth said. Percy looked at her and frowned. Where the Hades was Sicyon? She looked at him like 'really? You forgot that?' Well, didn't everybody?

"Oldest village in Ancient Greece," she muttered to him.

"Oh, right!" Percy said even if he really didn't remember at all.

"I see," Chiron said. "But I don't believe you."

They all froze and looked over at them.

Chiron pointed towards Percy's sword.

"That sword… Is an exact copy of what Seth uses, and he only has it because he descends from Heracles." Chiron said. "And he was raised inland, nowhere near the sea, or where Crete would be. So I have no idea how you'd have gotten your hands on it. And you," he said turning towards Leo, "Would be in the army right now if you were from Sparta."

"I… Ran away?" Leo offered.

But Chiron wasn't done.

"And you, if you were an Athenian young lady, would be married." Chiron said looking at Piper. "It's why we always ask for demigoddesses to come here at a young age."

"They're married!" Leo said pointing at Percy, who hit him.

"Leo, give it up," Annabeth said looking at Chiron. "That was a mess of a lie. We should have known better, it's _Chiron._"

"I can spot a lie in teenagers like a hound," Chiron said. "Call it practise. And I didn't even get to your clothes yet. Where do you really come from?"

Everyone was looking at him.

"We're… On a quest." Percy said. Chiron waited for them to add something, for it to make sense… So he asked questions instead.

"I see. Who sent you, exactly?"

"This'll sound crazy," Percy said, "But you did." Chiron looked at Percy and tried not to look at him like he was insane.

"I did?" He said calmly.

"Yeah. You. But… From the future…"

"Percy you are creating time paradoxes," Annabeth warned him like it was an emergency. "Then he'll only send us on the quest because he'll know he has to in the future which means that we won't be equipped the same way to-"

"Okay fine, you explain this." Percy told her. Annabeth's grey eyes calculated for a few seconds.

"The doors of death are being opened," she said, "And a lot of things exist when they shouldn't, when they should be dead or gone or moved. This is one of them."

Percy didn't really see the difference, but he guessed that that one was more gently and loose.

"What are you saying? This camp shouldn't exist?" Chiron asked.

"This island shouldn't exist," Annabeth said. Chiron frowned.

"What island?"

"This island," Piper said.

"What do you mean? We aren't on an island, Camp is inland." He said.

"Oh snap- this is Dirt lady freaking up our lives!" Leo said jumping to his feet.

"This is a diversion! The others… On the ship…" Annabeth said. Percy froze. He'd seen Jason, Hazel _and _Frank fight, and he had no doubt Quinn could hold her own, but if something big came out… On the boat, while both he and Leo were away… Jason and Hazel couldn't swim, Quinn might be able to steer a bit but…

"We have to go!" Percy said.

And right that second everything around them faded like the illusion it'd probably been all along and they just fell into nothingness.

Jason

Frank had no idea how the others were doing, but he was hoping it was better than them.

It'd started out okay. Frank had suggested he go up to the crow's nest just because they were already on a pretty dangerous set of scales considering half the crew was gone. But Jason had said he'd go patrol the skies, and that he'd actually feel better up in the air when Percy wasn't around the ship.

But eventually Jason spotted something and he had to land to actually get someone to _look _at this right. He landed and grabbed Frank's arm and they'd looked over the side of the railing. Jason felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head and he'd throw up. He wasn't seasick like Hazel was; he had even bigger problems with water because Jupiter and Neptune's rivalry was bigger than what either of them had going on with Pluto (Pluto was sort of just there, minding his own business and laughing at his brothers destroying each other).

But man, were they in trouble.

Frank

Tyson and Ella were hanging out downstairs, Quinn had fallen asleep at one end of the ship (she didn't sleep well on a boat, did she?), and he and Hazel were sitting around the deck.

"Did you ask Leo yet?" Frank asked. He knew it was insensitive, but the silence was killing him. And he was always so scared of saying something she wouldn't want to hear. What if it was Sammy and he was more important than Frank was? He wouldn't be mad, they had so much history, and Hazel was just struggling with all of it lately…

"No," she admitted, bowing her head. "I don't get a thing about this and I… I don't want to nearly… Nearly die…"

She bit her lips and looked so troubled now… He put an arm around her.

"It's okay," he said. "You're still here. And for what it's worth, so am I. Okay? You're not alone in this. Do you want me to tell him?"

Her eyes flared.

"No!" She said. "No, no, please don't, please don't."

"Alright," he said putting his hands up like she was holding a gun. She sighed.

"Sorry but… I'm still confused, and I don't get to think about it a lot…"

"You might want to stop now," Frank suggested. "Hey, were you on deck when Percy did that water thing this morning? With the shapes?"

She smiled and started talking about a horse made out of water Percy had made, and it'd even galloped around deck until it'd suddenly broken apart right over Piper. Percy had laughed, but Piper had nearly gutted him with her dagger.

_That's _when Jason landed. Frank knew right away this was bad, even if Jason's face was about as revealing as a mask.

"Swords!" He said. Quinn shot up in her sleep.

"What- what's coming?" She asked, getting to her feet and drawing her gladus, readjusting her glasses on her nose.

"Another ship," Jason said uneasily.

_Just as our residential Son of Poseidon is out of here… _Frank thought. Great.

"Okay- umm- another ship?" Hazel asked. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know, but I saw a ship wandering around." He said. "A trireme- like this one. It looked pretty well armed."

"By who?" Frank asked.

"There it is!" Quinn said, pointing at a dot appearing over the horizon.

"Ship, ship, ship." Ella said, perching next to him. "Enemy ship. Means trouble. Quest is trouble. _Double, double toil and trouble, _William Shakespeare. Trouble is good. Bad for friends. Ella will leave now."

"Where are you going?" Jason asked.

"She will go be safe. Ella will come back when it's safe." Tyson said. "Need to make it safe."

"Trust her; she will get out of the line of fire," Frank said. He squinted to look back out at the sea. The ship that was coming… Was it really..?

"Guys," Quinn said suddenly. "D-d-do you know who the-the scourge of the seven seas was back in the-the Mediterranean? W-when Ella said trouble was good, she meant they were good navigators… T-that's a Greek ship coming at us!"

"Coming at a ship full of Romans," Jason said looking at the kids around them. "And at Tyson."

That was the most unfair fight Frank had ever heard of; but they were going to have to fight it.


	38. X Quinn, Piper, Jason, Annabeth

**Hi! Sorry for the cliffhanger (but not really). Today you get two chapters- feel special. Thanks for the review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the concept or characters or camps in Heroes of Olympus. **

**Enjoy, happy weekend!**

* * *

><p>X<p>

Quinn

July 10th

"Man the Scorpions," Jason said. "Frank and Tyson at least," he said.

_Shoot at the hull- that'll keep them away from us. All we'd need is aim, and that we have. Any closer and we'd need to be able to manoeuvre this, and only Tyson could do that with the expertise needed, Leo's just teaching me the basic controls, and that's nowhere near enough… _

"Tyson drive," he said. "Need get away."

"I'll go," Quinn said, rushing towards one of the Scorpions. She'd given the last working bomb she had to Percy before he'd left, she was empty handed for that…

"Aim towards the hull, to destroy the ship," Frank said. "Then they won't be able to come at us."

"Theoretically speaking," Jason said.

Quinn sat down at the Scorpion. For those wondering, a Roman Scorpion was the same as a ballista, but for as long as she'd known about them, Quinn –and every other Roman- had called them Roman Scorpions. You basically sat down, and pulled a string towards you like a bow. Then you'd let go. Sometimes there were two people manning a Scorpion- one for the arrows and one for the pulling back. But here? Not so much. When you had a good line of fire, you let go, and hoped you landed it. The beauty of these Scorpions was that unlike traditional Scorpions, they took cannoballs _and _arrows instead of just one projectile.

Jason kicked off the deck to get some height, and a better view of what was going on.

"Fire!" Jason called. Cannonballs flew and they hit the ship, which was becoming a hazardously big spot in the horizon. They fired a few more shots, but either missed- or the projectiles bounced off from what Quinn could make out. That was _not _normal.

"This isn't working," Hazel said nervously.

"Hold on a sec, I'll try something," Frank said. He took off his jacket and jumped into the ocean. Seconds later, Quinn saw the back fin of a shark cutting through the water.

"He's going to snap off his teeth on that ship," she muttered.

"He knows, he's got another plan." Hazel promised, watching eagerly. As far as Quinn could tell, she had gathered every scrap of metal –it was funny, a whole chest of shrapnel was stored with the food, just for her- to use as projectiles. Hazel didn't need a Scorpion.

They couldn't see what was going on even if the boat was gliding towards them even faster.

"I should go help him," Jason said. "Or at least go see…"

"No, he's got this." Hazel insisted. "Trust him. If he didn't ask for help, he doesn't need it right now."

Nobody protested. They couldn't shoot because they had no idea where Frank was and hitting him would not only be humiliating, frustrating, terrible, but alsohard to explain to the Greeks when they got back. They couldn't do anything because Frank wasn't coming…

"Brother not coming," Tyson said. Quinn nodded to herself because she _really _couldn't see anything but the other ship now.

"He will," Hazel promised.

"No, he told me." Tyson insisted.

"He told you?" Jason asked.

"I hear brother's voice." Tyson said. For a second Quinn was caught on thinking about her own voice. They'd scared her half to death last night.

"You mean… What?" Hazel asked, just completely confused now.

"Tyson's a son of Poseidon; Frank must be some sea creature he can communicate with." Quinn said.

"Okay, makes sense. Where is he? Tyson, do you know if we can shoot because we won't have much of a choice soon." Jason said.

"Don't know," Tyson said. This was scary, not knowing what to do…

"Frank knows we'd have to shoot," Hazel said. "He'd be out of the line of fire."

"Aim for the deck," Jason said. "If we can't navigate past this _Graecus _ship, then we can use what we do have."

_Aim, _Quinn thought. Just because the lifetime supply of peas, canned pears, beans and soup (all in can form) downstairs didn't count as using something that they had.

They took their shots and aimed. The cannonball Jason and Quinn fired crashed through the planks making up the deck.

"Again!" Jason called. Hazel was willing anything she could to fly at the ship. Hazel could accomplish both distance and momentum with those, it was scary. Yesterday she and Percy had been practising. Hazel tossing them as fast and far as she could, and Percy willing the tide to carry them back to the ship and fish them out. At Annabeth's suggestion, she'd summoned as much treasure as she could when she felt it around, plus there was the initial New Rome stack; so there was a pretty solid stack of ammunition for her.

Quinn focused on her ballista again.

"This won't work," Hazel said. Quinn could make out the shapes onboard now if she squinted really, really hard and put her glasses on at the right angle. She saw sailors wearing ancient Greek tunics –chitons- with swords at their waists and they ran around the ship, pulling on ropes and tying knots and manoeuvring their craft with the same ease as Percy.

Quinn frowned. Percy's skills were god given and inborn. How did they..?

"These aren't normal," Quinn whispered.

"What do you mean Quinn- we _know _they're not normal, we're supposed to be the only trireme on earth!" Jason said.

"I mean that they're too good! I know a thing or two about sailing- I grew up near a river," Quinn said. "But they're… They're _too _good. They can't be real!"

She looked at them. They _had _to understand this, they just had to!

"These aren't just brought back from the dead; they're elite!" Hazel realised.

"Just what he needed," Jason mumbled.

And that's when Frank popped up again.

Piper

"Tartarus!" Annabeth yelled. "And I'm not cussing- don't fall!"

That was really hard considering they were falling to their dooms right then.

Leo produced rope from his belt and threw it as they fell. It hooked on to something and he was safe. He grabbed onto Piper's wrist since she was the closest thing around.

It was like those interior skydiving air tunnels; that had you floating around thanks to air currents blowing in from the bottom. Except Piper couldn't see the bottom, the walls were sketchy and sharp black, and they were definitely _not _floating.

"Where are Percy and Annabeth?" Piper asked Leo.

"I don't know," Leo said. "But Beauty Queen, I'm not calling you fat here, but this rope won't hold."

"Do you have anything else?" Piper asked.

"Nope, toolbelt's dead." He said. Piper wondered what she had on her that she could ditch to ease the weight, and she could do an inventory over her worry for Percy and Annabeth and _where in the world were they. _

"I have a dagger!" She said.

"Well that took you a long time to figure out," Leo said. "And the best thing is that right now, you can't slap me for saying that."

Piper looked at the wall.

"Maybe," she said. Eagle landings; she'd done a million of them from one bird to another. If she could just…

"I'm going to try something, and it's insane, but I'm going for it." Piper said.

"Sounds like a plan," Leo said. Piper started sweating (as a matter of speech, this place was about as cold as Boreas' penthouse); she couldn't build up her momentum or anything, she'd have to just _jump. _

She took a deep breath, and threw her dagger at the wall. It landed point first and sunk in the wall- which was a good thing, because Piper didn't feel like going down with it.

She jumped from the rope and she was halfway from Leo to the wall, when she though 'hmm, what if the dagger isn't deep enough?'

Too late, she felt her hands scrape rock and she was just in time to hang on to the dagger for dear life. In the unevenness of the rock, she found foot holes, but that was it.

"Okay," she said. "Okay, that takes care of us."

"Great; now where the heck did our residential lover birds go?" Leo asked.

Piper didn't have a clue.

Jason

They were doing reasonably okay at not dying.

Quinn was right; these guys had been dead once. She'd called them the sailors of some-place-with-a-Greek-name, where the best sailors of Ancient Greece had been. That hadn't been the good part, but their bullets had finally started piercing through the ghost boat.

Then Frank had popped up.

He'd been a dolphin- jumping high and friendly and oh-my-gods-its-a-cute-little-dolphin-take-a-picture, and when he'd been just a bit above the other ship's railing, he'd lurched so he turned to head towards their deck and he'd shifted into a whale. So there was this huge whale sized dent in their deck. The wooden planks were broken, and the railing destroyed.

Frank had turned back to his human self; he was duelling the sailors now; and most of them weren't that great at it. Between that and the animals he changed into (which was a shock all in itself), they were doing fine.

Hazel had taken to projecting metal over at them. And when she ran out, she either lured it back to throw it with momentum, or she simply willed it through someone's throat from afar. Either method was acceptable.

Jason blew a gust of wind over to the stockpile of metal, and they all floated in midair, waiting for Hazel to punch at them before going flying.

Tyson had stopped trying to steer the ship away, and he was fighting with them now, flawlessly manning a Scorpion, so Jason was about to take off to join Frank on the other ship and help do damage there. That was when Quinn started screaming.

Jason didn't know Quinn the best- not like Hazel or Annabeth did. He'd met her, he'd been the one to give her a tour of camp, he'd helped to keep her out of Octavian's legion, and he'd talked to her at meals, or in the streets and such. He'd spent a day short of a week on the flying ship with her- which had to count for something- and even the people who'd just met her on this ship such as Percy knew that _Quinn Hunter did not scream. _She looked shy and afraid, but she never screamed.

He was expecting her to be hurt. He spun around to look at her, but she was just bent in too, her knees buckling and buckling, and her face twisted with pain, her hands to her ears.

"Quinn-" He said. He knelt in front of her, and tried to touch her wrist to see if that'd focus her back.

"It's Percy!" She told him. She looked at him. "Percy and Annabeth- something's going to happen- they're both in trouble!"

"Quinn, how do you know?" Jason asked. Percy and Annabeth were all that way on that island. And what'd happened to Leo and Piper?

"I…" Quinn bit her lip. She didn't want to say.

"Okay, never mind, never mind- what kind of trouble?" Jason tried to soothe it out of her. He knew he had to go fight but someone had to take care of Quinn.

"Gaia's better half," Quinn said. She closed her eyes in pain again, and Jason was just completely clueless.

"Okay, Quinn, you need to go below deck." Jason said. "We'll finish these guys off, and then we'll figure out what that's about."

"I can- I can fight…" Quinn said, picking up her sword.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." Quinn nodded. "I'm used to it."

"Used to..?" Jason let it go; later. Right now they were supposed to fight.

"Stay here. From what I hear you can throw a mean spear, and just in case Hazel needs help with a ballista," he said.

He took off towards the other ship. When he landed on the enemy deck, every worry about Quinn or Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Leo peeled off like sunburnt skin; and his only instinct was to help out Frank. They immediately met up and fought back to back, like the legion had taught them to.

And it was working pretty well until the sea threw up on them.

Annabeth

Percy grabbed her hand as they fell, and they were both screaming their heads off. At least she wouldn't lose him when they landed (if they landed).

"Can't fall!" She yelled.

"We don't have options!" He yelled. _Seaweed. Brain._

"Do you know what's at the bottom?" She yelled at him. They were falling for far too long- there should be a bottom.

"Well, you yelled out Tartarus…"

"Bingo!" Annabeth said. "I am not going down there with you!"

"What's wrong with me?" Percy yelled back at her.

"You know half the people there personally!" She yelled at him. Okay, this was bad. Tartarus was the second half of the giants, he was their father! If they ever touched the bottom… Annabeth could only start imagining how happy with seeing Percy the giant would be.

"Percy stab Riptide in a wall or something!" She said.

"What?"

"Percy do it!" Annabeth yelled over at him. He got the message (a.k.a.- we have limited options so you better listen to me and do this) and they stopped falling. The momentum swung Annabeth towards the wall, and she crashed into it. She felt the familiar choc in her nose that meant she was bleeding. Before the weight would be too much she took out her knife and stabbed it in the wall. She let go of Percy's hand.

"Okay, what now?" He said. She looked up at him and tried to think. They had to go up, but how were they supposed to do that?

"Okay, first thing, take off your armour." She said.

"What? We sort of need armour!"

"If it weighs you down and you fall into Tartarus completely and die painfully and tediously, you won't." Annabeth said.

"I hate it when you're right," Percy said. She didn't mind him, and took off her own armour. She kept two essential pieces; the owl helmet and the chest plate. She watched her armour fall deeper into Tartarus. She winced. Beckendorf had made that for her when she'd been little. It'd grown with her, literally expanding as she grew up. She hoped the magical properties wouldn't affect Tartarus or fuel him somehow; but she had bigger problems.

"Now what?" Percy asked.

"I'm still working on that!" She said. She looked around. Down was not an option; which left up. But they had no way of doing that. Her backpack had disappeared along with the illusion of the old Camp Half-Blood. She couldn't believe they'd fallen for that- it had been a distraction. Then she wondered what the ones on the ship were dealing with… Something Romans on a ship weren't good at; this had had to be Gaia's way or getting rid of the biggest players…

Oh no…

She returned her focus to the moment.

"The best we can do is hold on," Annabeth said. She hated this. She should have something up her sleeve, but all she had was what she'd already used. Wait a minute- use… reuse…

"Okay Seaweed brain, this is going to be complicated." She said.

A few minutes later she was holding onto Percy and they were both hauling each other above the other. Their progress was slow, and tiring, but neither of them had a better idea, and they had to get out of here somewhere.

Percy dug Riptide into the wall.

"Okay, I'm good," he said holding his hand down. She took it and with her dagger, and feet, she hauled herself up. She finally put her foot on his shoulder, and dug her dagger in the wall.

"I'm solid," she said, holding out her hand to him. It was harder for him to move up because he was heavier, and she wasn't as strong as he was; but they managed. They had to, it wasn't like either of them dying was an option.

"This is when you wonder where the one who can fly is," Percy said. He sunk Riptide in the wall and held out his hand to her. She took his hand with a finger-cracking grip he returned.

Suddenly he tensed.

"Percy?" She asked. "Percy what's wrong? Tell me right now…"

"Gaia's in my head." He said.

Annabeth froze. He _had _told her that Gaia was under some kind of illusion that he was about to help her. But not now.

"Percy, ignore her." Annabeth said. "Come on, focus on me. I'm here." She held his hand, but didn't take her dagger out just in case…

"Yeah," Percy said. "Totally." His hand tightened around hers and he helped her up. She sunk her knife in and extended her hand to him. His eyebrows were scrunched up, like he was worried.

"Are you _sure _you're okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"Do you want us to stop and take a break?" Annabeth asked.

"We'd waste our energy." Percy said. Annabeth didn't say anything, she held out her hand and Percy found further foot holes in the wall to climb.

"Percy, what is she saying?" Annabeth asked, as she pushed her foot off his shoulder, and sunk her dagger as high as that went.

"I don't know," he said.

"Percy it is inside your head- of course you know." Annabeth said. She started getting worried, when Percy didn't tell her stuff… It was usually really bad-sounding and it turned out to be really important information she could've used beforehand.

"Percy…" She said.

"Something about us meeting her better half… Whatever that means…" Percy said.

Annabeth's brain snapped into one name.

"Oh no…" She said. "This is not good…"

"You say that a lot when we're about to go through something that usually ends with a-"

And suddenly her knife, Riptide, and both of them melted through the wall.

She landed on her hands and knees and looked up immediately. The room looked pretty much like the tunnel had, except with a floor and ceiling and the man on the throne.

Annabeth knew he wasn't a man. Men had faces, not smooth black surfaces like the tops of pianos. His clothes were like wisps of black smoke, curled around him like robes, and his skin was crusty and black. He was twenty feet tall; his throne was the same size as the ones on Olympus. She got to her feet and raised her knife. She saw Percy with Riptide drawn, at the corner of her eye.

"Annabeth…" He said. "Look around."

She risked a glance at every monster around and her breath froze inside her throat.

She saw the Minotaur, Echidna, the chimaera, a hydra, hellhounds by the handful, _dracanae _snake-women aplenty, Antaeus the giant son of Poseidon and Gaia, the Manticorn, Agrius and Oreius the bear twins who'd been Luke's bodyguards, Kampê- spitting venom and rage as always, a few Hyperborean giants, basilisks, mean looking Cyclops and Laistrygonian, rogue centaurs , the Nemean Lion, a few _anemoi thuellai, _a bunch of mean harpies, telekhines, the Clazmonian sow, giant scorpions, and a few _karpoi _grain spirits Annabeth had seen last summer while searching for Percy...

"Oh gods," she said. "That's every monster we've ever killed."


	39. XI Annabeth, Percy

XII

Annabeth

This was the scariest moment Annabeth had ever been through.

When you see one monster, yeah, it's scary unless you know how to get them out of your way fast and fail proof. But you think 'okay, one of them, one of me. They have teeth, I have a knife. Amen, let's go'.

But when it's _every single monster _you've ever thought that about, some of which not even because you were thinking 'AHHHH!'… It's a whole other ballgame.

Oh, and Percy's two thousand batches of kills were there too, which meant that they really, really _were _screwed.

It was funny; she looked at them and she recognised them. This one Hyperborean; she'd tackled with Clarisse during the Titan War. That hellhound had the chipped tooth because it'd tried to eat Percy, and he'd swung his sword on the way down its throat. That _anemoi thuellai _in a Dallas Cowboys jersey had called her 'thief of his pray' before she'd killed him as she was looking for Percy- which made her think he'd been a survivor of Jason, Leo and Piper's first fight. And that Cyclops had been the one to mess with she, Thalia, Grover and Luke ten years ago. And was that Medusa in the crowd? Annabeth starred at her shoes.

"Annabeth, you're a genius, but even you can't get out of this." Percy whispered.

"I know." She breathed out. It appeared that it was the monster's turn to kill them.

The god laughed.

"Okay Tartarus- how did you get us here?" Annabeth asked, addressing him.

"It was easy. Gaia asked me to distract the Greeks and leave the Romans to their naval battle on their own-"

"_The Romans_ are in a _naval battle!_" Percy chocked. Annabeth could see the Argo II in shreds, and she only hoped that Tyson could drive fast enough, and that the Romans were just as make-do at sea as they were on land.

"-And so I decided to have my fun," Tartarus said ignoring him. "… And my revenge. Do you have any idea how crowded I am thanks to you demigods? Can you honestly not simply live with the monsters for once?"

"Not really when they're trying to kill us," Percy said. Annabeth punched his arm.

"No excuses!" Tartarus bellowed. "You can all go to Hades, and leave me alone. And do you have any idea how much _you two _cost me?"

"Yeah, about that much," Percy said, looking around at the monsters. "Damn, Annabeth, we're actually pretty good."

"This is _so _not the time for you to develop an ego," she said, standing back to back with him. If this was the last human being she'd have contact with- touch, feel, hear, see… Than at least it was Percy.

"It was simple; I created a distraction, and the harpy sent the Greeks on their way. And the second the threat arrived on your Roman friends, I sent you where you wouldn't come back. I also thought you'd enjoy seeing this," Tartarus said, pulling from his smoky robes some antique looks scrolls, bound together by twine.

Annabeth's eyes nearly popped out of her skull. This wasn't- he wasn't- no way- that wasn't…

There were eight scrolls- just like her research with Malcolm had pointed to… They were all covered in golden or ink black scrawl that seemed to change like a teleprompter or PowerPoint special effects…

"The Sibylline books…" She whispered.

"Indeed, daughter of Athena!" Tartarus said. His voice was even and cool and it sounded cruel. He was like Hades in a way, except Hades had that touch of humanity which enabled him to think and judge. Tartarus seemed more cyborg than human to Annabeth. "That Augury of Rome was right on one thing. You _should_ have tried to find them. Although I suppose your she-praetor was right too, you would have all died while looking. I have access to the dark side of every dead soul in my kingdom and Hades'; and people have done dark things to protect, steal and hide these books… It was fairly easy to recollect them."

"Okay, you know the fate of Rome," Percy said. He was thinking about Ella; he was thinking that they knew it too, so it was fine. Annabeth wanted to take him by the shoulders, shake him like a maraca and tell him how _not okay _this was.

"Percy, you don't get it," she said instead. "The books are all of Rome's history. What's written in them will happen. What's erased from them…"

Percy's face fell.

"He could erase the seven half-bloods and the quest." He said.

"No," she said, "If he decided to write that the Camp will be destroyed by a rain of frogs; it'll happen. If he writes that the boat sinks and the camp is overrun by giants… It'll happen…"

Percy

That was a major bummer. It was downright a scary and dangerous bummer that could change the course of the future. There was nothing they could do about it; Tartarus held the books in his hand, they were surrounded by monsters whose bloodthirsty natures were cranked up seventy-seven notches because it was _them_ as opposed to any other half-blood (except maybe Jason or Reyna)_… _

If they died; the others wouldn't even know. He and Annabeth would die underground, nobody would ever know why, Annabeth would _die… _He had to get her out of here. She could make it through whatever apocalypse Tartarus was dreaming of, warn the others…

What he _hadn't _been getting, was that while she'd been talking and explaining Tartarus' diabolical plan; she'd been repositioning herself. Which was stupid, because that was what happened in many fights. And the second Tartarus opened his mouth to talk to them (probably about how they were going to die), Annabeth jumped.

Okay; Annabeth was athletic and she'd been doing this stuff for a while; but how did she get from the ground to a primordial (yeah that's right, he _did _listen sometimes) god?

Her sneakers. That's how.

There were tiny electric jolts that sped up from the soul and heal. He was sure there was a Daedalus explanation behind it, but a tiny blast amplified her jump, and she caught onto the gods' shoulder. She jumped up to his ear before he could even react, and she scampered to his neck.

"WHAT?" He roared. Percy was thinking the exact same thing, but he charged, and stabbed his foot through the gods' ankle.

"CHARGE!" He yelled at the monsters. "Charge you fools!"

Percy dove underneath the throne and several monsters wacked their heads against the frame or legs. But the smaller ones- the empousai, the telekhines, grain spirits- made it in. Percy swung his sword and hacked at them, but he didn't have that much room either. And guess what? They were already in Tartarus, so they died for about two seconds before popping back up. Some of them stayed stuck behind the crowd of bigger monsters who couldn't get under the throne, but some of them were _fine _at smuggling their ways through the crowd.

He was already exhausted, considering the climb in the tunnel earlier; and he couldn't catch his breath because the baddies came back before he could even blink. It took everything he had not to collapse and let the monsters that should've eaten him eons beforehand get him now.

Then he heard Annabeth shout out in something a bit like the sound she made when she got the final digit of an equation that Paul couldn't get right when she did her homework at their apartment. That is to say; victory.

He heard a manlier roar of fury, and the sound of chunks of rocks cracking and falling towards the ground.

"Stop!" He called. "Pull back!"

A hellhound that'd stuck its head under the frame and was holding Percy's leg in his jaw, as well as an empousai whose fingers were crawling up his arm to his neck looked particularly disappointed. But they dropped him. Tami blew a kiss before walking away.

"Perseus Jackson!" Tartarus roared. "Come out here this instant or you'll never see Annabeth Chase again!"

It was like an instinct for him to just do what Tartarus had said when it came with a threat like that.

He ducked out from under the throne and jogged back, until he could see the god clearly. His eyes sprawled, hoping this was an empty threat. Somehow Annabeth had gotten caught, and she was in the center of a fist, her hair pulled out from its ponytail, and a painful looking scratch ran down the side of her face, her nose still leaking blood from earlier. His heartbeat caught.

"Annabeth!" He called.

Tartarus laughed.

"Yes, Annabeth, why don't you tell him what you told me about the Sibylline books?"

Annabeth didn't say a word, but sent him a deep look that said 'don't, don't, don't, don't…'

The god frowned and shook her like a mix 'n bake, and it took all Percy had not to charge right there and then.

"Tell him!"

Annabeth spat on his hand. The god turned to Percy, to answer himself since Annabeth was being an uncooperative and rude little son-of-a-gorgon. Gods, he loved her.

"The Sibylline books- the genuine Sibylline books of Rome- were guarded. At first, only descendants of Apollo had the right to study, look and even _touch _them. Later on priests could. And finally, they were given to certain officials for their keeping. And none of that was just by formality; these things were bound by magic. The book will only respond to one of those three things."

"Fantastic, I love trivia." Percy said sarcastically, holding Riptide tightly. "Now let her go."

"Well how's this for a factoid: you, as praetor of Rome, will open these books and change them for me, or I'll kill your girlfriend."


	40. XII Annabeth, Hazel,

**Hey guys! Have a nice week? Sorry I'm late, but you know. Stuff. Activities. Watching Survivor. Go home Colton. Go home now. **

**So I'll answer the top comment of the week I got from everyone and everyone right now: Yes I know that's a cliffhanger and no I do not apologise :D**

**Other thing: if anyone knows how to see the winners for Scholastic's Dystopian writing Contest, somebody would like to know. And by somebody I mean me. Anyways, enjoy, mean cliffhanger is over, yeay!**

**PS- Start keeping track of Jane and Cedric. It's widespread but important, so...**

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><p>XII<p>

Annabeth

She met his eyes and tried to put what she wasn't screaming in there. _Percy Jackson, I love you too, but don't you dare!_ Because he _could not _do that to the world…

Then some part of her said that it was Percy Jackson, and he could do anything.

He looked at her. His face was tough and screened over like Lupa had taught him; but his eyes were untameable. She could tell what he was thinking, and he was torn.

"Percy don't!" She yelled. He _could not _be torn, this should be easy. They'd worked so hard to save the world once, they were doing it again, and it was _the world_. Jeopardising it… There was no way even _he _could think about it!

"Percy don't you dare!" She yelled down at him again when he didn't react. He looked from her to Tartarus.

"We can't both die here." He said. "You can't die here…"

"Don't be n-"

Tartarus readjusted his hand over her mouth and blocked her last word. Noble. _Don't be noble Percy Jackson, don't save me_… She tried to bite his hand, but it didn't work.

"One squeeze and she's gone, Percy Jackson." Tartarus said. Panic flashed in Percy's green eyes.

"I'll do it." Percy told him. Annabeth screamed and she knew him so well he had _so _heard her. But he didn't let it show, and Tartarus squeezed her to have it shut up.

"Let her go first." Percy demanded.

"I'm not risking it." Tartarus replied. Annabeth screamed again so Percy wouldn't trust him. She got squeezed (again).

"I'm not cooperating if she's in danger." Percy insisted. She yelled again and Percy ignored her (again-he was really going full Seaweed brain on this one).

"Fine," the god said.

Next thing she knew she was falling and the ground was coming at her at a scary speed. She just had enough instincts to tuck herself in, and turn the impact into a somersault. The second she got up, black smoke tied her ankles and wrists together and she fell over, hard on the rock, hitting her head in a concussion-worthy impact.

"Percy don't do it! It's not worth it!" She called over.

"Annabeth he'll kill you!" Percy said, like that explained it. Smoke gagged her mouth again, before she could reply. Great. Fantastic. She was the only one with a logical thought process right now, and she couldn't influence the only one with power right now.

Annabeth was going to seriously hurt someone.

Tartarus dropped the books and they rolled at Percy's feet. He bent down and picked them up. He was holding them- he was about to open them- she had to do _something. _She tried biting the hand again, but Tartarus acted like he didn't even feel it.

Percy gathered the books in his arm.

"I, Percy Jackson, praetor of Rome risen on a shield at the battle of Polybotes, command for the Sibylline books to-" Annabeth figured that the words were either rattling off by instinct, gut feeling, or improvisation, but at that moment they were snatched from his hands and a burst of red flew upwards.

And she knew what it had been all along; a bluff.

"Bad!" Ella said. "Bad like Portland! Sibylline books are a secret! The Secret Life of an American Teenager, directed by Ron Underwood, Ansom Williams... Not for Tartarus! Ella save books. Yep, yep, yep."

At that moment Percy pounced towards Annabeth, and Riptide cut through her bounds.

"Seize them! Seize the harpy!" Tartarus yelled. Suddenly Annabeth felt herself get lifted off the ground and her feet suddenly dangled over the crowd of monsters. A column of fire shot her way- either the Chimaera or a dragon or drakon of some sort- but she lifted her feet above the column of flame, the heat warming her legs.

"What?" Tartarus bellowed. "What in the world!"

"World, Around the World in Sixty Days by Roal Dahl," Ella muttered. "Ella leave to go to world now. Ella bring friends." Annabeth looked up and saw that Ella had seized them. She held the Sibylline books in her hands, and she held Percy and herself, each in one claw.

"Ella you're a genius!" Percy yelled up.

"Genius, mad genius" she muttered absentmindedly. "Ceiling. Uh oh. Bad ceiling."

"She can't fly through!" Annabeth realised. Percy took something from his pocket. It was a small metal object the size and shape of a matchbox, and Annabeth had seen Quinn fiddle with something like it yesterday.

"Ella- I'm going to throw this, and you're going to have to swoop down!" Percy yelled.

"Ella swoop down. Down from ceiling. Down with the ship. Yep, yep."

Percy threw the metal matchbox with all his strength. It hit the ceiling, stuck on like it had some form of adhesive sticker, and suddenly it flashed and exploded. Chunks of black rock rained on them, but Ella swerved with the flying ability of a fighter jet- which impressed Annabeth considering all the weight she was carrying. She knew harpies were strong, but Ella was small. Then again, she loved and breathed the Sibylline books.

"Swerve. Plumpton Pass. Seeker move: a seemingly careless swerve that scoops the Snitch up one's through the Ages, page 99, by Joanne Kathleen Rowling… "Why does it always have to be spiders? Why can't it be follow the butterflies?" Ron Weasley, Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets_…"_

Annabeth let Ella mumble as they flew up. They seemed to be back in the original tunnel now.

"All aboard," Ella said. "Tchoo tchoo."

Suddenly they saw Piper and Leo near.

"Get them!" Annabeth told Percy. She grabbed onto Piper's forearm, and Piper closed hers around Annabeth's. Katoptris was ripped from the wall, and Piper managed to hold onto it.

"WOW this is so cool!" Leo, whom Percy had retrieved, yelled.

Finally they were out of the tunnel. It looked like the island illusion had never existed, like they'd burst out of the ocean.

Annabeth still couldn't believe how much weight Ella was carrying.

"Oh my gods- look!" Piper called to them over the sound of the wind.

Annabeth squinted and saw two warships. Two warships? Okay, that was not normal… And one of them was sinking.

"Oh please don't let that be our warship," Percy said.

"My baby!" Leo said. Piper rolled her eyes.

"Is the Argo II safe?" Percy yelled over the wind.

"It is!" Annabeth said. "I see Frank patrolling! Or at least eagles aren't found this outland usually…"

Ella dropped altitude and eventually she dropped them onto the Argo II. She plummeted from the sky in fatigue and Tyson caught her.

"Whoa where have you guys been?" Frank said, landing.

Jason landed too. He'd been standing on the other warship and tallying damage to it.

"To hell and back," Annabeth said, enjoying just lying on the deck and pretending she didn't have to move anytime soon.

Hazel

They filled the Greeks in on what exactly had happened on the warship and listened to what Percy and Annabeth told them about Tartarus. Piper was helping Annabeth stop the bleeding from her nose.

"So those things are what Octavian's been after for the last three years?" Jason asked, looking over at the scrolls. Ella was keeping them tucked under her wing and she was looking left to right like a watch dog, a very vicious watch dog in fact, so nobody was touching them anytime soon. Only Tyson had been allowed to look at their outside and poked a page that Ella had called 'ancient history' and a few other things in languages that seemed to be from that era.

"The Sibylline books," Percy said. "Thank gods no quests were sent to find it; Tartarus had them. We wouldn't have made it out if it weren't for Ella."

Ella scowled at him.

"Wisdom's daughter walks alone," She snapped at Percy. Hazel frowned, even if she'd gotten used to Ella's blurting of prophecies and world destinies. Usually she didn't snap, much less at Percy.

"Is it bad that I want to destroy them after all the trouble they've cost?" Jason said. His face looked calm, but Hazel could tell he was angry on the inside. "You two nearly dying, Octavian pressuring against Reyna so hard…" His jaw locked when he said her name.

"Yes," Annabeth said. "If you destroy those books, you destroy the destiny of Rome."

"Oh great, so we're taking care of _tha_t too?" Leo asked.

"Well, we could throw you overboard and the books of destiny can take your place." Frank offered.

"Don't be stupid Frank," Percy said. "Only he can drive."

"I feel loved." Leo said. "Who wants tacos?"

Everybody was starving after hanging on to a rope/wall for dear life, rescuing the Sibylline books, or winning a naval battle against all of history and the world's odds.

So Leo headed under deck and Hazel bit her lips. She didn't like to watch him go. It reminded her too much of Sammy, and how he'd left, and it'd been forever. It was stupid and nostalgic, but it was chewing Hazel out from the inside. This was Sammy's grandson! How weird was that?

And the worst part was; she'd been avoiding Leo. She'd been looking away, or starting conversations with other people when he came above or below deck, or offering to go do the dishes to avoid him. He wasn't an idiot; she was sure that he realised that. But Hazel was just so scared of him doing a typically Sammy or Valdez heritage thing and causing her to go off… Maybe she'd die and fail her friends, father and world. She didn't want to worry them, but she knew she had Percy and Jason on her case, Quinn was suspicious but she stayed out of it, and oh gods, Frank… If she died, what would happen? What if she did have a part to play before heading back to the Underworld? Gods, what would they do with her body?

"Hazel," Percy said. "Earth to small cousin…"

She looked up.

"I'm not that short!" She defended. "I'm just thirteen!"

"She's back," Frank announced. Hazel gave him a look and bumped her shoulder into him playfully.

"So that bomb you gave Percy-" Annabeth said to Quinn. Quinn blushed up to the root of her hair.

"It was simple," she said. "Well… No… I only made one, and the blueprints were swept away in the wind… But it's basically a powder made from kitchen essentials…"

"That stuff can explode?" Frank said dumbfound.

Quinn stared at her lap. She'd fallen in the water during the attack, so she was wrapped in a fuzzy looking blanket, holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

"If… If you know what you're doing."

"Someone should keep watch on Leo then," Jason joked. A few people laughed, but it was mostly from emotional strain, which was more than enough. The sky was turning all sorts of funny colours that the sky didn't usually turn. That was a sunset for you. Go watch one next time it comes around; you'd see. It was even more beautiful when it was on the ocean, with the water shooting the colours back in the sky, and the calming sound of the waves…

Leo came up with plates balanced at several key points on his arms, and dinner was served. Hazel had never had a taco before, but it turned out to be okay. Or at least the tofu-pepper version was.

Someone suggested they spend the night under the stars. Hazel noticed that Quinn shifted a bit, but everyone seemed okay with it, so they moved up the sleeping bags. Fresh air would do everybody good anyways.

Hazel curled up in her sleeping bag and looked at all the stars. Annabeth was telling them myths about constellations, and Jason had gathered some of his own from here and there. He didn't say, but Hazel knew that some of them were from Reyna. It was the first (and only) semi-gentle thing she'd ever seen Reyna do.

It'd been night when Hazel had stumbled throughout the borders. The guards hadn't seen her in the dark (and Hazel held some Pluto related genetics responsible), and so she knocked on the doors and gave them all heart attacks.

She'd been taken to the praetors' houses, even in the dead of night. They'd knocked on both doors, and Jason had been out first. He'd taken Hazel's name, home address (she'd _had _to say New Orleans), and brought her to the principia. Reyna had shown up a few seconds after she'd sat down with Jason and he'd asked her if she needed any food or water, wearing sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt, a few pieces of armour thrown on. She's scared Hazel even then.

She'd sat down next to Jason, rigid like a plank of wood.

"You travel by night?" Reyna'd asked. "How did you orient herself? How did you avoid the monsters?"

"The stars," Hazel said. "There was this one at the end of the big dipper that Lupa showed me… She said it was the only one I needed."

Reyna nodded.

"Ursa Major. She was a hunter of Artemis in the Greek times, before Rome's Empire. But Zeus fell in love with her, and she was soon carrying a child. Soon after Artemis found out, and she cast the girl- Callista- from the hunt, and turned her into a bear. See, the hunters of Artemis were sworn to eternal maidenhood. Callista's son was born human and he was a great hunter himself. He grew up and nearly shot his own mother, but Zeus wouldn't have it and he intervened. He turned the hunter into a bear as well; Ursa Minor." Reyna had explained.

"That's the Gemini," Jason said, jerking her back to reality.

"I'm a Gemini," Annabeth said.

"Most Gemini have a keen, intuitive, sometimes brilliant intelligence and they love cerebral challenges. But their concentration, though intense for a while, does not last." Ella quoted. "Gemini … Saggitarius…"

"You know, the good thing about being in the middle of nowhere is all the stars that you see." Piper said. Hazel nodded. It reminded her a bit of Alaska- where there was nothing clouding the sky, and nothing to distract you from it. It was you, the wild, the stars. It hadn't been that bad. Maybe if her memories and death bed hadn't been tucked into the state, Hazel would be able to look at it and see wonder not sadness.

"A hunter once told me that whatever we see is nothing compared to what there once was," Percy said from his sleeping bag, where he had one arm tucked under his head, and one arm around Annabeth.

"Must've been a great time to be alive," Frank said.

"Are you kidding?" Leo burst out. "They had to build boats like this _all the time!_" A few people laughed, but it was more of a fatigue- like most of the emotions that had been going around that evening. And slowly they just fell asleep one by one.

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><p>Replies to Anons:<p>

Anonymous prob spelled wrong: Don't worry, he will (eventually)

Bigfan: D: :D

I forget your name but you left a really sweet anonymous review a few chapters back- somewhere in the twenties… Thanks!


	41. XIII Leo, Quinn

XIII

Leo

July 11th

"Okay," Cedric told Jane. "Wow that was unexpected because I was_ totally _bluffing. I mean, not that I'm not amazing, but I didn't think you wanted to end this war as badly as I am."

"You're arrogant," Jane said. "And you talk a lot."

"Welcome to the Greeks' world." Cedric grinned.

"I think capturing you may have been doing them a favour," Jane said. She reached under her cloak and took out one of those _probatio _tablets. Leo managed to read what looked like 'IAMES'. Then he remembered what Brady had told him about the letters 'U' and 'J' being represented as 'V' and 'I' (which was why Julius Caesar's name being IVLIVIS), and that Latin was originally written all in capital letters with no punctuation or spacing. What an easy grammar test to pass.

"This," Jane held it up for Cedric to see, "Was my little brother's." Jane said. "His name was Jamie, and he was seven years old."

"Brilliant," Cedric said. Jane's scowl deepened and her mouth pulled into an even tighter line.

"No. Not brilliant. He was seven years old when he died."

Cedric's face fell.

"Seven years old?" Cedric asked. His face turned into indignation. "You let seven year olds fight?"

"Of course not!" Jane said. "He was seven years old; the medics watched over him. It just so happened he was taken on a cart to go pick up the wounded from the battlefield. It also happened to be the one cart that rolled over a bomb made from what I gather is called Greek Fire."

Cedric's face fell.

"So not only did Rome lose 2 expert medics, 5 wounded soldiers that could have been nursed back to health; but I lost my baby brother. Who was, to revisit the point, seven-years-old." Jane said. "Most people assume I'm mad at the Greeks, and I want their blood on their very battlefields. But I'm not, because Rome has laid out bombs in Greek territory as well."

"You _have?" _Cedric blurted. "I mean, carry on."

"They tried to win a war, and because of it, a little boy was killed, along with two medics who could barely fight, and wounded soldiers whose ambition was to fight or go out fighting." Jane said. "Frankly, I'm surprised at myself for not being mad, but there are some things that can change you and your wisdom for the better. I'm guessing that seeing a tombstone with the name of the baby brother that wanted to be _just like you _and who you loved on it is one of those things." Her face hadn't changed a bit when she said but Leo's stomach twisted inside.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Cedric said. Jane looked up at him fearless.

"Thank you. Now hush, be good, and don't answer to any guards but me. Don't you dare tell them I'm on your side, or that you're on a third side, a side that isn't Greece or Rome. I'll be back tomorrow."

Quinn

_She can touch you. She can touch your friends. See how close she is? See how all she needs to do reach out and she can tear your heart from your chest and break it like you broke that son of Virtus' heart? _

Quinn looked up at the sky. The stars were beautiful, but it was hard to appreciate that when you had bitter ugliness whispered in your ear. Try to enjoy jellybeans when you hear the ingredient list and nutritional chart read out to you.

_Speaking of him- how are things going? Have you begged for his apologies yet? Or do even _you _sense that you'll be shot down just like you shot him down? _

Quinn gulped and turned on her side.

_Actually, come to think of it, you wouldn't know. Because Jedediah Adams isn't with you, is he? He's with _Gaia. 

Quinn sucked in a whole lot more air than a breath usually accounted for and she froze. Jedediah was… with…

A flash of green eyes and brown hair popped into her mind and she saw his face. She saw him with a faceless figure in dirt robes, beaten up and crumpled and tattered in a corner. Or worst, standing at her side as her lieutenant… No, crumpled in the corner and bleeding.

_You didn't know? Oh what a shame. We're having so much fun. And do you want to know why he's in that cage.?_

"No." Quinn whispered. It was one of the first times she talked back to the voices, the first time since she was five and it had been determined that yelling "go away!" was fruitless. "No, please…"

_Because of you. _The earth shall take what the seven want._ Familiar maybe? That's right; it's your fault that he's there. You can't stop wreaking havoc on his life, now can you? Do you know how much fun he has in Gaia's cage? He is a most entertaining target for practise. He runs around and tried to avoid it, and it's all quite entertaining. A bigger knife might need to be used next time…_

"Don't you DARE!" Quinn said. And then she realised how loud that's been. And demigods slept light. _Really_ light…

She was stuck between Piper and Hazel, and they both sat up croaking.

"Quinn why are you still- whoa… Whoa, Quinn, what's wrong?" Piper said suddenly. Quinn realised she was crying. Super. Just great. Exactly what she needed right now.

A bunch of the others were stirring. Annabeth sat up and slid out of her sleeping bag to come see her (and then the weight of her in his arm leaving woke up Percy who went 'hun?' which then woke up Frank…)

"Quinn, what's wrong?" Annabeth asked kneeling in front of her. Leo's hands lit on fire and soon the whole place was lit up, as he got up to light an oil lamp, Frank cringing away from the flame although Quinn didn't register that fact, her heart beat too fast, her brain spun out of control too violently. "Why are you..?"

Annabeth sat down, and wiped Quinn's cheeks with her sleeve, and took her hands.

"It's okay. It's okay, it's okay, what's wrong?" She said. "Nightmares or..?"

"I'd have to sleep first!" Quinn cracked, dropping her head in her hands. She immediately hated herself for admitting it, her fingers tightening around her skull.

Because now they'd want a story to go with it. 


	42. XIV Piper

**Hi, thanks for review and CC, march break for the win, bye!**

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><p>XIV<p>

Piper

July 11th (at a time past midnight most people aren't awake at)

"What do you mean, Quinn? You really can't sleep on a boat, can you?" Jason said.

Piper was really caught back. Quinn was the most intense and strong fourteen-year-old she had ever met (and ever wanted to meet, because it was kind of scary). But now her cheeks were wet with tears and something in her eyes had gone out- that child of wisdom brightness. Now she just looked broken and tired and sick of _something_.

"It's not just on a boat," Quinn said. She hugged her legs and looked at the crew as if she was evaluating which shipmate would pounce at her. Piper was confused about what was going on –as she usually was at 12:17- but she knew the answer to that question. None of them would pounce on her; none of them would hurt Quinn. And she felt like telling her so.

Annabeth took Quinn's hands and played with them for a bit.

"Quinn, we're your friends. I'm your sister. We'll worry about you if you don't tell us, and we'll help you in any way we can." Annabeth said. "You might not want to talk, but sometimes that's the best thing you can do."

Quinn didn't say anything, she just studied the problem and calculated odds and chances; pluses and cons.

Children of wisdom and their logical little rituals.

"Is there something hurting you?" Annabeth said.

"It says it will. And I guess it has in a way, because I…" She bit her lip.

"Go on," Annabeth soothed. "Please Quinn? You really need our help, and if I can't help you I think my head will explode."

"That would be a _big _mess." Leo muttered. Piper swatted at his arm.

Quinn took a deep breath. This was a secret she didn't want to put into the open.

"Since I'm a toddler, my dad thinks I'm hypnophobic." She finally said quickly.

"You were what now?" Leo asked. Piper slapped his arm because that was quite inappropriate at this time. Quinn blushed harder.

"Hypnophobic. Afraid of sleep," Quinn said.

"Seriously?" Frank asked. It didn't sound teasing, just flabbergasted.

"Don't laugh," Jason said.

"It's not fun. A lot of half-bloods are so scared by their dreams they become afraid of sleeping." Annabeth said, in a way that made Piper think that it'd happened to the later before.

"But I was a child, a baby. I didn't know about any of that yet," Quinn went on nervously. This was obviously a story she'd never told before.

"So that's it? You're hypnophobic?" Percy said. "That's nothing to be scared or ashamed of."

"No it's… A lot of it is _why. _And I'm not actually hypnophobic, that was my dad's theory because he had no way of knowing that the truth…" Quinn bit her lip. "I'm not scared of sleeping. I just physically and psychologically _can't _sleep_._"

"By what factor?" Annabeth asked calm and level like an actual doctor.

Quinn took a deep breath and said, "I… I hear voices. As soon as the sun sets and it's dark out, I hear them. It's weird. I can never tell where they're from, or if they're man or woman, close or distant, or any of it. It's like the plain canvas of voice. And they say…" She shivered and Annabeth put a hand on her shoulder.

"You don't have to tell us," Annabeth said.

"Yes I have to," Quinn said. "I started talking, didn't I? They threaten me and tell me horror stories of what they've already done to heroes, how they'd adapt it for _my _friends and family, how strong they are, how they would tear me apart before I even came into play…"

Quinn shivered.

"Every night they have something new to say. They'll never run out of ways to hurt people I care about and I've tried everything to make it go away, but it won't. They come back every night and I'm hearing them right now and they're telling me to shut up and that they know exactly in which bunk Cate sleeps and which road my dad lives on." Her voice was chocked in the last bit and the fear brightened up Quinn's face, her tears streaming again.

"Quinn…" Annabeth picked her sister up in a hug and kept her close. Quinn cried into her shoulder; and she cried a bit more because this was the first time she'd ever had comfort about this.

That wasn't fair.

A silence as light as an anvil hung around the Argo II. It suddenly made sense to Piper why she'd already seen Quinn tossing and turning at night in the fourth cohort's barrack, or why sometimes at night it took her a while longer to respond, or it was like she couldn't hear you right… Because she literally couldn't hear you over the mental torture she'd been putting up with.

"Think of it this way; you already came into play. They can't tear you down or break you apart." Annabeth said, running her hand across her sister's back. Looking at Quinn now, Piper thought they might already have.

Quinn looked up at Annabeth. This kid was smart; she knew the only promises she could count on were the voices, and she didn't want those. You couldn't promise Quinn anything without scaring her stiff.

"They said that Gaia had one of my friends," Quinn said. "One of my best friends."

Hold it right there.

Piper was a daughter of Aphrodite. True, she couldn't point eyeliner from a crayon, for the first week of walking into the Aphrodite cabin the perfume had triggered a gag reflex, and the one time Lacy had tried to teach her how to walk in high heels (Piper had figure 'why not?') she'd nearly killed herself.

But she was a daughter of Aphrodite either way, and that came with certain perks; like effortless at-least-not-that-bad looks, speaking French, and having a red alarm flare up in her mind when someone said 'friend' and meant 'more than friend'.

But she shut up because she was a _good _child of Aphrodite that way.

"What's his name?" Jason asked. His face was stone.

"How do you know it's a guy?" Quinn asked.

"Just tell me what his name is," Jason said. "I've been having these dreams I didn't really want to talk about… They're sort of a downer…"

"Well while we're up and all cozy," Leo said, crossing his arms over his knees.

"Leo, you're more of a messed up child than I thought if this is your definition of cozy." She informed him.

"Jedediah," Quinn said. "Jedediah Adams."

Jason closed his eyes and bit his lips.

"Yeah. Okay." Jason said.

"Jason, can you please tell us more about these dreams?" Piper asked, half-wanting to slap him for not sharing those dreams with her or Leo or Percy or _anyone_.

"I've told you and Leo already," he said. "And of course Percy and Annabeth know about my sister Thalia."

"You have a sister?" Frank asked. "Why does everyone have a sister except for me?"

"Technically Joan is your half-sister," Piper comforted him.

"Which makes me feel much better," Frank said.

"That makes Reyna your step-sister." Annabeth added. "And Hylla too."

"And don't forget that Tyson and I are your great-great-great-great-"

"Shoot me now," Frank said.

"Anyways Jason, you were saying?" Piper said bringing everyone back to square one.

"Okay, so yes, I have a sister. She's a daughter of Zeus, which makes her Greek- and no, we don't really get it either. She's also immortal because she travels with the hunters of Artemis as lieutenant." He said. "Leo, Piper and I met her on our quest, and we haven't seen her since. None of the hunters of Artemis have seen her since. I don't know where this is all happening," he said. "But I get these flashes. It used to be only Thalia, and she was in a cage; trapped by the earth. _The earth shall take what the seven want; _I think that's what it means."

"You said it 'used' to be only Thalia," Percy said, worried.

"Right, well… Now I see other people. Nico joined into the fun. I think that that's Gaia's 'he's being held captive'. Then there's someone they call Mrs. Zhang," he looked at Hazel then at Frank. Frank's face fell, and his forehead caught in his hands.

"She's still _alive?" _He said.

"Looks like it," Piper said, putting her hand on his knee to make him feel better. "She's still alive, and she's with two demigods, she'll be fine."

Frank straightened up or nodded.

"Plus my Grandmother's the scariest senior citizen on the face of the earth, so you know." Frank said trying to take it lightly. "No hitting with a handbag full of hard candies; I think she had a knife in there all alone."

"Totally true. She's worse than Terminus." Percy said. Half of the crew winced because worse than Terminus was plain scary. "She was all like 'A son of Poseidon? You don't do justice to your heritage when you slouch!' and it was midnight and we'd just snuck past giants, and she _still _made me stand up straight."

A few people snickered.

"She seemed fine to me," Hazel said.

"Grandmother loves you," Frank said. Hazel blushed.

"So you say that Gaia's got your sister, my brother, and Frank's grandmother trapped?" She said.

"Where does Jedediah fit in?" Quinn asked weakly. She hadn't said a word since his name.

"Recently two other people are in on the fun," Jason said. "I'm not too sure about one of them, but one of them is Jedediah, I recognise him."

Quinn's hands covered most of her face.

"He's fine Quinn. He's not injured, he's not…"

"You call being captive somewhere fine?" Quinn asked, rather roughly on the Quinn Hunter scale-of-speech. Jason's face toughened, like he was putting on more effort for the stone aspect. Piper cringed. He was thinking about Reyna…

"No. But he's alive, and nobody's being hurt." Jason said. "And for your information-"

"Who's the other one?" Piper interrupted before Jason could say a word- partially for Quinn's sake, partially for the general peace (if Jason _finally_ lost it and snapped at Quinn, there went Annabeth, then Percy, Frank, Hazel…; and nobody knew exactly how roughed up Quinn was inside) and partially for herself even if she knew it was selfish.

"He's some kind of ghost-" Jason said.

Hazel would've done a spit take if she'd have had water.

"What do you mean ghost?" She suddenly looked bright and chirpy.

"Well, he's alive, and he talks to them." Jason said. "I think. I've only seen him once. Sometimes he's not around."

"What do they call him?" Hazel asked. Her eyes were sprawled and she looked desperate right then. Piper frowned and tried to figure it all out. Frank looked bitter for a nanosecond, but he straightened his face up to look emotionless and zombie-like; which just proved that he was hiding some kind or emotion.

"Sammy," Jason said. Hazel let out a very un-Hazel-like sound that Piper didn't know whether to classify as a shriek or a squeal, and put a hand to her mouth. She sunk back to her sleeping bag.

"That's got to be him," Percy told her encouragingly.

"Him who?" Piper asked. Everyone seemed to be talking about their own string of theories or experience and it was all generally confusing, senseless, and weird.

"Sammy," Hazel said. "He… He was my best friend before… Well, yes, you know." She said skirting around the subject.

"He looked a lot like Leo," Jason brought up.

"What now?" Leo asked. Oh super, _Leo_ was involved now.

Hazel looked at her lap and Leo frowned and cocked his head.

"Is that why you've been avoiding me? 'Cause you knew someone?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Hazel said tucking her legs in.

"That's why you've been avoiding me? Jeez- I thought I'd done something wrong!" Leo said in a kind of relief.

"I said I don't want to talk about it." Hazel said.

"Yeah but it seems kind of stupid that just because I look a lot like someone…"

Piper wanted to tell Leo to shut up, Hazel was making it clear that she didn't want to hear it, but it was too late.

"You don't just look at him you're his grandson and it's not even funny because he was the only one that was ever there to make things even half decent for me and he was the first boy that ever kissed me and you act exactly like him too!" Hazel finally burst like Leo had poked a balloon with a crayon just a bit too hard.

His shoulders slumped.

"Wait- whoa- what?"

"That's why I kept having these blackouts whenever _you _were the one around-" Hazel explained, although Piper saw that the emotions were really just bubbling into a huge mass and overwhelming her. "Because you act and look so much like him and I think of him and of New Orleans and-"

She suddenly went limb and there was a general movement from everyone.

"See what you do to her?" Frank asked Leo angrily.

He tipped Hazel's head back and gave her two breaths, thirty compressions, and he checked her breathing. Nothing, so he started another cycle, and everyone waited impatiently. Frank was pale as a sheet and he was shaking like a leaf, waiting for her to wake up and _hoping_ she would. Piper crossed her fingers and ran a whole speech through her head to Apollo, Hades, and even Aphrodite hoping that her mother would take to the come-on-Hazel's-a-good-person-and-Frank-loves-her-and-gods-none-of-that-'she dies in his arms'-crud-right-now.

Suddenly Hazel coughed and Frank backed off, as she propped herself up on her elbow and coughed like she was chocking. He put a hand on her shoulder and one of hers curled over it. Her eyes were watering and Piper had no idea if this was from the near death experience, shock, sadness, or all three.

"You're okay," Frank told her as she sat up again, breathing heavily.

"I hate this!" She said. "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this! Why couldn't I just be born in the damned right time period in the first place? God- this is so _wrong!_"

"Hazel- you're not wrong." Frank said. "You weren't born in the wrong time period! It makes you ever better, even more special. Don't you ever say that again! Don't feel bad about anything; because every piece of it makes you the strongest, bravest, most amazing person I've ever met." He insisted on it, and looked at them daring anyone to beg to differ. Nobody would, but Hazel still wasn't buying it, even from Frank. There was just that one push…

"Frank is right," Piper spoke up. "Hazel, don't you realise that everything about you makes you perfect for what you do? And what you're doing? Don't you get that doing what you're doing washes away anything you might feel guilty about even if you should be guiltless? And there's nothing to be ashamed of because you're back from the dead- you should be proud of that. Proud that you gave your life to be so heroic once, and now you're back to save the world _again." _Piper said.

And by 'said' she meant 'said with total honesty and charmspeak because honesty just didn't cut it for anybody anymore'.

Frank shot her a thankful look above Hazel's chin. She was buried in his arms, trying to find comfort in a world that must be so, so cold for her. Everything from the cruelty of being back for more of Gaia's crud, to Leo being Sammy's grandson, to these blackouts, to every other thing weighing down on a world that was already about as light as a lead balloon…

They were quiet for a minute. The lantern directly above their circle/mob of sleeping bags was turned on and Piper looked at everyone. Annabeth had her arms around Quinn who was leaning back on her, chewing her own lip in worry looking _so _different without her glasses. Leo who looked guilty and shocked like Piper had never seen him. Jason looking at everyone to make sure people were all okay. Percy who was looking at everyone like he expected someone to declare telekinesis, Tyson who looked at them a bit confused, not that Piper doubted even a single bit that he understood every single word, and Ella perched on his knee. She wasn't even muttering anything, and Piper had this deep and scary feeling that the harpy had known all of this all along.

They were a mismatched crew; like the leftovers of all the kids sitting at the cafeteria table nobody else sat at, and the last kids picked in gym class for teams. But somehow they were all held together like Lego blocks.

Looking at them all, the silent quiet and relief of secrets being in the open… Piper understood what that 'somehow' was about.


	43. XV Reyna

**Hi, thanks for review and CC, please review, bye! Some of you will rejoice here, others won't. Depends on how much you hate a certain someone.**

**Disclaimer: I no own HoO and et cetera.**

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><p>XVI<p>

Reyna

July 11th, daytime

Octavian was sitting, kneeling against the wall in front of her, looking relaxed. A smile was at his lips, and for once, Reyna felt okay too. Well, 'okay' was relative, but she'd just had a nice, strong conversation about Ancient Persian weaponry. For a second her mind had strayed from the claustrophobia that engulfed it to the Byzantine-Sassanid Wars, and to the pros and cons of using a _Shamshir_, a Persian sword.

You would be shocked at how little people had a clue; but Reyna had touched and handled most ancient weapons on the pirate ship, at some point.

"I have a question," Reyna told Octavian.

"I might have an answer."

"You trapped me here," she said. "You sent my fellow praetors running so they could save their mission and the world. And you trapped me here."

"You said it twice."

"Well it was worth it." Reyna said. "And you've always been against me in the senate- you've humiliated and outspoken me more than once, and you never treated me like I was your superior… Yet now you act like we've always been best friends."

"We… have been friends." Octavian said carefully, getting to his feet, "Once upon a time."

"That was ages ago," Reyna said. "And it was short-lived and it ended rather harshly with a sharp comment from you."

"Yes well… Maybe _I _didn't forget about that. Maybe _I _regretted that harsh that sharp comment since it happened."

"That's it?" Reyna said, thinking that he was more of a social idiot than she was if this was his idea of making friends. "This isn't exactly promising to make friends, Octavian. Especially if the world ends."

"Why do you think I ever decided to hate the Greeks?" Octavian asked, completely changing the subject.

"Fear?" Reyna said, drawing on her military knowledge. "Fear inspires all hate. Fear and desire."

"Wise words. More wise words: no. It was from something you told me back when we were friends. You complained about the Greek warriors who had destroyed your home."

"You replied you hated the Greeks too." Reyna said.

"They say flattery is the most sincere form of appreciation," Octavian said. He waited for Reyna to say something but she didn't; she wanted a better explanation than 'sucking up'.

"I didn't stop there; I campaigned and campaigned. I wanted to give you justice. And when Percy Jackson arrived and you obviously had some form of bad history, maybe even a grudge- I saw it in the auguries- I thought that he could kindle the fire. I thought he would make you hate the Greeks and jump on the boat. That you'd follow my idea, that you'd like it.

True, Annabeth and Piper were threatening. Piper speaks well, even without her powers; and Annabeth is just incredibly clever and intelligent and such a skilled fighter. I supposed I was also jealous of the later's happily-ever-after."

"They took in Jason, and I dealt with my past," Reyna said. "I don't hate the Greeks."

"Neither do I," Octavian said.

"What do you mean?" Reyna growled. "You chased them out- you made this mess!"

"I couldn't give up my campaign without looking weak and losing everything I have- my power, my allies, their trust in my auguries…"

"Why did you put the show on in the first place?" Reyna asked. "That's even more cowardly than treason!"

"For the love of Caesar- you are so incredibly slow!" Octavian said. "I don't know how Jason toughed this out with you… I was trying to impress you, Reyna. I was trying to have your approval, I was trying to get in your good books, and gods know they're sealed with a padded lock! I _like _you Reyna. The last four years- look at the marks on your arm- I've watched you and I've been trying to impress you. Leading a cohort- the first one at that-, keeping a stone face, speaking well in the senate… I thought it'd impress you. But you're even harder than your outside shell looks Reyna, and sadly, that's just something about you that I like even more. So I suppose that I actually _love _you."

Reyna was shocked by a lot of things: when Guinea Pigs had turned into pirates (that'd been a big one), when Jason had disappeared, when she'd just _kissed_Jason for the first time or when the Argo II had been forced to flee…

But this was a new kind of shocked. Those things had been out of the blue. Random. Unpredictable. But this had been under her nose and it was her own fault if she couldn't put the pieces together.

"Oh." She slapped herself (mentally, considering she was in chains) because that was dumb, even by her orator standards. "Octavian…"

"It's foolish, and it's taken too far. But I can't stop now."

"It's never too late," Reyna said.

"Oh yes it is," a voice said. Reyna heard the sound of metal-flesh impact and Octavian's body stiffened. His eyes sprawled in a way Reyna recognised.

"No!" Reyna yelled. But he sunk to his knees then collapsed on his face. A throwing knife emerged from his back.

Reyna had a photographic battlefield memory- and that extended to injuries. It was the same thrust, the same kind of blow and angle as Gwen in the war games.

And Reyna somehow knew that his injury was lethal.

"You idiot," the voice said again.

And Joan Golan stepped into view.


	44. XVI Malcolm, Annabeth, Reyna

**Sorry I'm posting late, things happened, you know what it is. But it is legally still Friday, and this was posted on Fanpop- so you know. As March break ends, I realise that not only I'm off to see Hunger Games in 8 days with my fancy ticket, but I also have a lot of projects that are due next week and should have been done this week. Enjoy! (The story, not the homework, that's my problem)**

**Disclaimer: You know how it is. Me no own. You either. **

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><p>XVI<p>

Malcolm

July 11th

He sat on his bed with Annabeth's laptop on his lap and ran his fingers across the keyboard hoping really hard she would never fingerprint the laptop, for that would result in his murder. He could see Annabeth standing up in court and saying 'your honour, he touched my laptop' and be set free. _If _they'd ever catch her, that was…

"Knock, knock." Someone at the door said. Malcolm didn't look up.

"I said knock, knock. Jeez, you're uninteresting." The girl at the door- he knew it was Nyssa just because it was _always_ Nyssa- said.

"That would be because I'm busy."

"Malcolm, I've seen you learn Latin while mixing chemicals and debating with Annabeth on repainting the bunks. I think you're multi-functional enough to say 'who's there?'" Nyssa insisted. He rolled his eyes. Some people were just so stubborn there should be an award.

"Who's there?"

"Nyssa Montgomery." She said. His shoulders dropped.

"That's it? That's really it? I was hoping I'd get some form of comic relief out of you. And then you just go and let me down." Malcolm said shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"Comic relief comes with a price," Nyssa said, walking in, expertly weaving a way between work tables, bunks, whatchamacallits and patents alike, and sitting on a bunk to face him.

"Is there any news from Annabeth? Do we have any idea where she's at?"

"Not either. We called her Dad, but she never got in touch with him." Nyssa said. "And she wouldn't have just _walked_ cross-country, would she?"

"Is there any news from Rome in general?" Malcolm asked.

"No, they're as absent as they should be in the first place." Nyssa said. "I can't get more than visuals of the senate, and I can't seem to change the setting."

"And it's slowly killing you?"

"Pretty much," she said crossing her arms. "Speaking of killing slowly… How's Chiron? I didn't get to talk to him today."

"He's… Well…" Malcolm became uneasy. It felt weird talking about Chiron like this. Not the 'Chiron said' or 'Chiron showed me this trick the other day' or 'Chiron said that it was better to sharpen your sword with this'. This was a weakness on behalf of the centaur. How odd.

"Never mind," Nyssa said.

"I just don't understand what's wrong," Malcolm said, putting down the laptop. "I mean, we've leaned on him ridiculously for the last few months; having no idea about the ship and the Romans and et cetera. New kids have had to depend on him to learn everything they know since all the campers were running around like headless chickens…"

"Maybe it's not his immortality fading," Nyssa said. "Maybe it's something else."

"But that makes no sense," he said. "The doors of death can't trap gods. Because they're immortal."

"Chiron's not a god he's a weaker level of…"

Malcolm's heart skipped a beat when Nyssa said that; 'Chiron's not a god'.

"Oh no…" He said.

"Malcolm, have you just predicted the new apocalypse?" Nyssa demanded, getting up, her eyebrows frowned.

"No, but it might as well be… Come on Nyssa, we have to go find him!"

"Whoa- whoa- whoa!" Nyssa said grabbing his arm. "Other people might follow you blindly but me? Not so much. What's up?"

"Remember when we were building the Argo II's deck? How one person got on and jumped on the deck at a time, so we were sure that it was sturdy? When you're testing something, you start small. The weakest pressure first."

"Yes General Eisenhower." Nyssa said.

"Don't you get it?" Malcolm said impatiently, tugging her arm. "They're starting with Chiron… And then they'll try to take in other immortals! That's our _gods._"

Annabeth

July 11th (later on in the night of)

She was trying to get her balance on a piece of drift ice. She'd fall into the water; and something told her that the icy cold would get her in no time. But something grabbed her wrist to keep her from falling, and she looked up at Percy.

Suddenly someone shouted something and Annabeth woke up sitting up straight.

She sat panting and panting and panting. She turned to look at Percy, who was sleeping, lying on top of his sleeping bag like everybody else because it was hot out.

She shook his shoulder and he woke up. He looked at her with hazy eyes, took a look at her face.

"Tell me in the morning so we don't wake anyone up," he whispered kissing her forehead. She tried to fall asleep with his arm around her shoulder.

Reyna

July 11th

"_You._ _" _She growled to Joan.

"Me," Joan said. She knelt and pulled her knife out of Octavian's back, and thrust him on his back.

"You are such a swine," she told Octavian. Half of Reyna agreed but the other half was thrashing as if she'd turned mad after all this time of incarceration.

"Joan-"He chocked out.

"All this time I was willing to stay in the shadows, and let you override what I wanted for my cohort. But it was all a fake, and it looks like I was in the wrong shadow."

She stood.

"Now… I don't see why a praetor can't work alone," she said.

"Joan- don't do this…" Octavian breathed out.

"And why not?" She growled at him. "You did it fairly well!" She kicked him again and Reyna yelled at her to stop.

"He's already dying!" She called at Joan. "And I'm guessing that you're the one who killed Gwen. You took his _Pilum _to cover your traces and make it look like it was someone from the first cohort."

Joan's nose crinkled. "Battlefield memory. Some kids have it."

"You are-" Before Reyna could launch herself in the appropriate terms, Octavian let out what Reyna knew was the Death Rattle. When you couldn't cough or swallow and your mouth was filled with saliva; when you were just about to be swept off to Tartarus.

"Joan- get some ambrosia or nectar!" Reyna ordered.

"You're not throwing orders around," Joan growled. "Not you, or Grace, not your lover-boy, not the _Graecus…_ I am."

"Joan… Don't do it… Not worth it…" Octavian managed.

Reyna hadn't liked Octavian for a long time. She certainly didn't love him, despite his sudden declaration she didn't love him, and she probably never would; she was hard to get, and harder to get back after you wronged her. She didn't understand him; she didn't understand his decisions… But what she saw was a legionnaire at her feet with his blood on another legionnaire's dagger. And it sickened her.

"Reyna…" He said his eyes pleasing for help.

Joan roared in rage and threw her dagger, interrupting his last words, and hitting him right in the heart. Her blade melted through his armour which made Reyna fear that Joan was suddenly a lot more dangerous than she'd ever been, and made Octavian die.

Just like that.

Joan looked down at him, her nose crinkled.

"I might send someone here to pick up his body." She said.

"You killed him." Reyna said.

Joan sneered.

"He deserved to die."

"Not like this." Reyna said.

"You try and tell me that you didn't want it." She said.

"You didn't want it," she repeated snidely. Joan punched Reyna in the eye. Her neck was toughened and the shock wasn't too bad- definitely not concussion worthy- but she was pretty sure there'd be a black eye involved.

Reyna yelled in rage. Nothing irritated her more than not being able to fight back- since the days in the pirate ship, or since the time she'd been a little girl and she'd punch the kids who'd take her toys.

She kicked out, but Joan took a step back, and Reyna's sneaker missed her by an inch. Joan laughed and Reyna started thrashing like a demon. It was childish and dishonourable- but just look at what honour had done. Pride had killed Octavian. It was putting the world in jeopardy

And she was still thrashing when Joan left.

Malcolm

He ran, and Nyssa kept up, until they reached the Big House. He ran into the door- sometimes his brain went faster than his actions. Nyssa didn't even drop a comment like 'smooth', because she smashed into the porch railing. His hand fiddled with the lock, and he eventually swung the door open.

"Chiron!" Nyssa yelled into the house.

"Quiet he might be sleeping!" He told her.

"Well this is worth waking him up," Nyssa defended.

"Don't worry children- I am up." Chiron said, wheeling himself over. Malcolm had to notice the shaking of his arms when he rolled himself forwards, the brown spots, the grey hairs that cropped up like mushrooms, his tired eyes, or how thin Chiron was. He'd always been fit and at a healthy weight, but this looked sickly.

"You were sleeping a few minutes ago," Malcolm frowned.

"We have something to tell you!" Nyssa blurted.

"I have something to tell you," Chiron said worriedly. "Lupa is wounded. Something had happened in Rome."


	45. XVII Leo, Piper, Annabeth

**So in this chapter I tackle something I have until now seemingly ignored *cough*Jasper*cough* and something that'll make you hate me. Enjoy!**

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><p>XVII<p>

Leo

July 11th (day)

So after that middle-of-the-night warm and fuzzy 'let's just all spit out those few secrets which somehow are still secret' phase in the middle of the night, Leo was edgy. And it was totally not because Hazel had been his grandfather's first girlfriend.

It was because of Jane and Cedric. He was sitting on his sleeping bag, looking at the beautiful wooden box that Brady had stuffed in his arms before ordering him to run away on the Argo II and never to look back. That was a secret he should have spilt to his crewmates.

Dang- there were a lot of things Leo should have spilt out to his crewmates. None of the Romans, nor Tyson, Ella or Percy knew that Leo was a menace and how he'd already killed his own mother (with a few twists and turns- but still). They just thought be popped up into fireballs.

He got up and stretched; his fingers touched the low ceiling. He left Frank and Piper to their game of Go Fish, and walked above deck. Since last night everybody looked okay and calm. Nobody had tried to tear anybody apart at least, and things were rather quiet and introvert. Jason and Percy were scrimmaging, Annabeth was drawing something out, Ella was fluttering around the mast, up and down and up and down and Tyson was tinkering.

Hazel was sitting at the railing, looking out in the ocean, and Quinn was reading a book on physics (again). She was the one Leo had to talk to, but he went to sit next to Hazel.

"Hey," she said. Hazel looked at him and for a second she looked scared.

"Hey." She said.

"Look, I'm sorry about giving you these blackouts or whatever they technically are," he told her. She looked down and blushed. She was actually pretty cute. Maybe Grandpa didn't have bad taste after all.

"It's not your fault," she said.

"And… I don't know for how much it's worth but… My mom was a little girl when my grandparents divorced. Sammy and Adriana were their names. Mom never said a lot about them, but apparently he said something about not feeling right with her, and how forced their marriage was before handing her the divorce paper." Leo said. He sort of twitched. "I'm not sure if you wanted to hear that or…"

"It's fine," Hazel said, although she was pretty pale and Leo was wondering how bad Frank would kill him if something happened. "I'm just really sorry it ruined his life."

"It didn't," Leo said. "My mom said that it really wasn't a great marriage after my Aunt Rosa was born. By the time she came around it was just dead and nearly everyone else in my family said that too. And my Grandma was a pretty horrible person, well, according to my Mom. My Aunt Rosa says Grandma was an exemplary woman, and she says that Sammy was about as devil spawn as I am; but I don't believe her. Grandma ditched my mom the second she found out yours truly was coming along, and she was the biggest let-down when my mom tried to get her engineering degree. I actually think you saved Sammy."

He really hopped that this wasn't an overdose of information because if she blacked out again, Leo had determined that Frank would kill him in slow and painful fashion after making sure that Hazel was still alive. He'd probably turn into an elephant and stampede Leo to death, or a lion to tear his limbs off. Actually- no- Frank was going to have to turn into a Great White and kill him because Leo would've just jumped in the ocean.

"Do you have any idea when he died?" Hazel asked.

"Mom was born in 1969- although I hope she never knows I found out, for my sake." Hazel's lip twitch- so about a quarter of a smile. "I think Sammy died just a bit after she was born."

Leo actually had no idea, he'd never really cared about his extended family much before seeing as none of them cared for him either (and after he'd met Juno he'd just totally given up on his grandparents), but if it made Hazel feel better, sure. Besides, it'd suddenly gotten interesting. Out of the blue questions had started popping into his head. It wasn't like there was anyone to answer them before, though… He shook his mom out of his head, for at least a little while. He was willing to take guesses if it'd help Hazel. He still felt really bad about last night.

Hazel looked down at the ocean.

"I wish time were like the ocean." She said. "It's vast, unknown, dangerous and wide; but at least you know where you fit into the systems and you stay in your own part."

Leo nodded.

"Yeah… Yeah, I guess."

Hazel looked at him.

"He died of a heart attack, right?"

"Yeah," Leo said. "How do you know?"

"Gaia said some things," she blushed, looking at her feet.

"Well, that's right… And everyone really freaked out because he was young for a heart attack." Leo said. "And it's not like he had a stressful job or anything…"

"What was his job?" Hazel asked, suddenly really interested in anything Leo was about to say.

"Umm… I think he was a stable hand at some rich people place."

Hazel broke out into a smile, and her eyes started shinning, like real gold. "Always horses," she said.

Leo had no clue what the flip that meant but he nodded, and excused himself.

He sat down next to Quinn.

"Hey, Quinn?" He asked. She looked up at him. For the first time Leo really understood what the pockets under her eyes, or the bloodshot thing was about.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"So, I was wondering, 'cause you're small and smart and it freaks me out a lot," Quinn blushed, "And you've been at Camp Jupiter longer than anyone minus Jason… but do you know anything about Jane Stone?"

Quinn's grey eyes sprawled.

"Do I _not _know who Jane Stone is, is a much better question!" Quinn exclaimed. Leo was taken aback by one of her bursts of 'oh my gosh I actually can talk loudly- ha!'

"Well, who was she?"

"She was the first female praetor in the history of Rome," Quinn said eagerly. "She worked in the infirmary or stores like all the other girls used to, but when the Civil War approached, she saw her chance and volunteered that they get extra legionnaires- so all the girls got enrolled and we've been legally authorised to do so ever since."

"Great," Leo said. "So… That's what she's famous for?"

"Yes. She was such a good warrior, and Rome benefited so much from her leadership skills, first with the fifth cohort, and then as praetor… She was a daughter of Vulcan so she patented and finalised these robot guards used up until the twentieth century."

"Why did they stop?" Leo asked her, remembering the guards Jane had shown Cedric in the dungeons.

"That's when the technology broke down. Nobody could ever figure out how to repair them, and nobody had a clue where the blueprints are, or if she ever drew any out- considering rations on paper and sugar and so forth were short. Children of Minerva and Vulcan get to take a look at the debris every once in a while. My sister Samantha was next in line to see them."

"But… That's it?" Leo asked, poking around for more. Had she ended the war with that Cedric dude? Maybe risen an army of those guard-bots? That would have been cool. If so, Leo wanted to have that dream.

Quinn smacked him on the knee.

"Owe!" He said.

"You deserve it! What do you mean 'that's it'?" This was the first time Leo had seen Quinn genuinely insulted or half-angered. "I'd be stuck in an infirmary right now, changing bandages and spoon-feeding the injured if it weren't for Jane Stone! She took a huge leap for girls to get in the legion. We would've eventually, but when you think about Gwen, or Joan, or Hazel, gods _Reyna, _or anybody in there…"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Leo said, throwing his hands up, although he felt like hands down over his knees just in case she kicked him. "What about nicknames? What did they call her?"

Quinn cocked her head.

"Stealth Attack Stone," Quinn said. "To scare the Greeks… Leo, why are you so interested in Jane Stone? How did you even learn about her?"

"I'm a genius Quinn," he shrugged. That didn't throw her off (of course it didn't).

"With tools. Not with history." Quinn cocked her head on the other side, still waiting for the answer. But if there was one thing that Leo had learnt from cooperating with the Athena cabin as far as Argo II building went; it was how to distract these Athenian/Minervan children.

"So how'd she die? Old age? Happily ever after, plush adulthood in New Rome?"

Get them talking about something science or techy or otherwise nerdy that they liked. Then you got them off your case because they were all over that.

"No," Quinn said. "She died in battle, during the civil war."

Leo was nearly disappointed.

She sounded great and important (and Leo wasn't just saying that because he was scared Quinn had developed the same mind-reading techniques as the FBI), and she was disturbing-dream worthy. So why had she just died in battle?

"But that's another thing she's famous for."

Leo perked up again.

"Historical accounts and records in the legion say that Jane Stone randomly froze in the middle of a battle, and a Greek on a horse swooped past her and his sword got her across the face, and down her armour." Quinn said. "It's why a lot of people who get scars on their backs or faces are called Stones in the legion; as a joke. She was said to bleed to death, even with half the medics trying to keep her alive, as well as the bandages, unicorn horn, and nectar and ambrosia…"

Leo frowned. The Styx-scary sister of his bled to death? That didn't sound right. He had pieces of the puzzle missing- it was like a car without the steering wheel. He felt it just like he felt if a car needed repair or not.

Piper

She'd shooed Quinn upstairs so she could finish her chess game with Annabeth, and she was making supper alone.

"Piper?" Someone asked. Piper looked up from the noodles she kept stirring, and saw Jason.

Oh brother…

Things had been so tense. One morning, maybe two, after their quest, Piper had gotten up to see him and she'd realised that something about the way he moved or looked at people had changed. His posture became straighter, his face plainer, and just the way he'd looked at girls especially… He'd never looked at girls like, say, Will Solace might; judging how hot they were or anything. But Piper could just tell there was a girl he remembered. And that the girl wasn't just a memory; that there was a legitimate feeling that came with her too. He really did love that girl he remembered.

She didn't want to hear it. He'd been so clear with her, so delicate about the whole thing, since the possibility of that girl had shown up. But now that they both knew it, Piper didn't want to hear it.

So she'd acted like a five year old and had ignored Jason, or swung around him, and avoided being stuck alone with him, because she _knew_ that he wouldn't feel right until he told her. She'd skirted away from the Wilderness school trio and hung out with Annabeth, Katie, Lacy, Mitchell and the Stolls a lot, and hung out with Leo when Jason was busy doing something-or-other.

She had a feeling this conversation wouldn't be put off much longer.

"Can I talk to you?" Jason asked.

"Sure," Piper said, stirring up the noodles.

He walked up to her, on the other side of the counter.

"I wanted to apologise," he said. "And I've wanted to for months, but…"

"I'm just too good at avoiding you." She said.

"Something like that."

He sighed.

"Look, you probably don't want to hear this. About the legion, or Rey, or anything. But I was always under a lot of pressure growing up. The only reason I was thrust into the fifth cohort was because I was so young when I got there. But once people started figuring out who I was and what I could do, and after certain auguries were read… I won one War Game, then I had to lead a quest, then I was in charge of training the new recruit, then I was centurion, then I was leading the seize of Mount Othrys…" Jason said.

"Like a snowball effect," Piper said.

"Exactly," Jason said. "Reyna and I didn't like each other for a long time. I was the one who found her, in the forest. She was lost, dehydrated, injured, exhausted, and running out of options… That was weakness for her, and she'd sworn never to show any again. She resented me for seeing that. She thought I was too flashy and loud. But eventually the legion paired us up to work together, and she started to trust me. I had a crush on her. She was the one person to which I actually went and told all this to. How sick I was of the pressure, how people kept mistaking me for Jupiter, how I was so unsure…

Reyna was the one who'd smack me in the back of the head and say 'Grace: you're superman without the cape and kryptonite. You may not be invulnerable, but I'm pretty sure you can handle this. Rome isn't blind, trust isn't put where it can't hold up'. Then she'd punch me in the arm and send me off to go do what I was meant to do. Usually she'd come with me because she'd be up to her neck in it too."

"The legion was the one who put you together, wasn't it? That's how you learned to love each other." Piper asked.

Jason tilted his head back, and leaned it against the wall. He looked tired.

"People think we don't love each other," Jason said. "People think we're just together because the praetors are always thrown together into a couple."

"That's what everyone in New Rome told me." Piper said. "Or what I heard."

"I don't love her because she's the other praetor," he said. "I love her because she's Reyna. And for some reason she loves me because I'm Jason. Anything that happens between us is because we're two people who fell in love, and it happens when we're not praetors, when we take off the purple capes and armour. That's how it's always been, and that's how it'll always be. People don't think it's true because we don't yell it from the rooftops, or we don't kiss in public, because Reyna's rough on the outside, or because apparently I could get any girl in the world…"

"You could." Piper said. Jason shrugged.

"People mistake me for my father that way and I admit it." Jason said. "I just hope you don't, Piper. I hope you don't think I played with your mind because I was bored and I wanted a girl or… or something like that."

"_What?_" Piper asked. "No… No, not at all Jason! I never thought that about you, that you were a player or something."

"People have been putting labels on me my whole life because of my father." Jason said. "I was afraid I'd inherited this one too."

"No, I was just upset because… Well, I don't know. To tell you the truth, I'm looking back at who I was a few months ago. And now I've met Frank, and Hazel, Reyna and Quinn, and it's like I've re-met Leo with everything he told us… Did I really complain about everything? My god, sometimes I think that if a fly would've landed on my arm I would've complained. I mean; my dad's sort-of distant because he wants me to have a great life. Frank lost his mom because she was trying to make a better world; Hazel's mom just didn't care for a bit… I was really a brat. I'm sorry I avoided you when you were just trying to make things right and clear."

"You weren't that bad," Jason promised. "At least you acknowledge it now."

"I'm trying to get better," Piper said. "And looking at everyone else on this boat it isn't hard."

"You're a better person because you admit to that," Jason said. "Besides, you were always a good friend. Is that what we are? Friends?"

"Definitely Grace," Piper said. "I followed you to Detroit, through a magic convenience store, and on a flying boat. I trust you."

He grinned. "Need help in the kitchen?"

"Yeah, tomato sauce is in one of the drawers."

"Yeah, I think I saw it this morning," he said, looking in one of the cupboards.

Annabeth

July 12th (night)

_Percy's hand closed around her forearm and lifted her up so she was straight. She was leaning dangerously backwards, at a Tower of Pisa angle. The ground under her feet was bobbing up and down, like some parts of Camp Jupiter's obstacle courses, except she heard cracking. She looked down at her feet_

_"Percy, the ice isn't solid or big enough for the both of us," she said. She was watching a scene from her point of view, but she wasn't doing anything. The sea churned around them, waves that even looked cold and dark grey going past them with force. The ice shook, and Annabeth saw more pieces sprawled everywhere._

_"I can swim." He said._

_"This is Khione's domain, not Poseidon's, not yours! You can't do anything! She'll kill you! She hates you!" Annabeth said._

_"Well then you're staying out of her domain too," Percy said. He pulled her further onto the little isle, and let go of her arm, and fell back like a bungee jumper, except nothing was holding him back…_

Annabeth shot up panting. Or at least she thought she shot up panting, but really it looked like another dream. She was on an island, sand mingled and stuck on her skin and hair, and Hera looked at her. She was biting down on her lips and she looked genuinely sorry.

"What was that?" Annabeth asked. She was sprawled in the sand, and Hera sat next to her. Annabeth's heart beat too fast. She didn't trust herself to sit up without throwing up, so she just lied down under the stars.

"It was the future," Hera said. "Or one option of it."

"Percy died in that," Annabeth said.

"Yes, he did." Hera said.

"He died for me."

These were all simple thoughts that she'd already registered and gone through, but she just had to make sure and get a confirmation.

"Yes, he did. Personal loyalty is his fatal flaw, as you know."

"Of course I do," Annabeth said. She looked at the stars, but she couldn't find the constellations like Chiron had taught her. This wasn't the actual sky; it wasn't real. But Hera was real, and Hera wouldn't show her something fake. Not something like this –because she was Hera and Hera was, in a way, a love goddess. Plus since their last talk Annabeth had determined that both of them were neutral towards each other.

"Can you see what happened?" Hera asked.

"Of course I can!" Annabeth burst, jolting up until she sat up. "He gave his life for me and died, I can see that!"

She sighed and rallied in her emotions.

"It makes no sense, why are you showing me this? We all know that Percy's fatally loyal." Annabeth said.

"Because our greatest strengths can be our greatest weaknesses. Look at me; I'm the goddess of marriage, and how is that going for me?" Hera smiled sadly. "You have all the cards Annabeth. You've had them since you've met Tartarus. You just have to put them in the right order."

"Tartarus…" She said. It rushed back to her; Percy's bluff for time while Ella snatched the scrolls, all the familiar monsters, how panicked she was…

A thought suddenly zoomed from her head to her heart and started beating up the later.

"That wasn't a bluff, was it? He was honestly going to give the books to Tartarus and open them for…" She dropped her head in her hands.

'Seaweed Brain' was not a strong enough set of words.

"Yes, he was." Hera said. "He was going to choose you over the world."

Any other girlfriend of any other guy on earth would have been touched and in awe and convinced that her boyfriend was the sweetest and most loving and perfect guy on earth. But because Annabeth was Annabeth and Percy was Percy; there wasn't time to consider that sweet. Because unlike most guys; Percy actually _could _choose Annabeth over the world in the most literal and dangerous way. He had plenty of chances on a nearly monthly basis.

"So he_ would_ choose me." Annabeth said. "Over the rest of the world…"

Hera nodded. "And more importantly, he did it once already. Your mother's protégé Ella saved you both, but she won't always."

"I can't change him," Annabeth said. "It's scary, slightly flattering maybe, but scary… But I can't do a thing."

"Mortals can't prevent hurricanes either, can they? But they evacuate cities and board up their buildings." Hera said.

Annabeth starred into the ocean. No way. No way did this mean what she thought it meant. The meaning of Hera's words had to have another interpretation because what Annabeth was thinking of was so… So…

Hera stroked her hair, and it was actually comforting. It was really, really comforting and Annabeth was maybe glad that she wasn't digesting this news alone.

"Gaia called him her pawn," Annabeth said.

"He can be bent to her will so easily." Hera said.

"She said she'd have him work for him." Annabeth said again.

"She can get to him, she knows what would send him over the edge, and she knows how to her that."

Annabeth chocked back a sob and buried her face in her knees. Hera left her alone for the few seconds it took Annabeth to compose herself. No, she _wasn't_ going to cry.

She raised her head and took a deep breath.

"Are you ready to go back?" Hera asked her.

"When do I have to do it?" Annabeth asked hoarsely. She didn't even want to say it out loud.

"I don't know exactly," Hera told her. "But sooner or later you'll have to, Annabeth. Do it while you're still strong."

She nodded.

"Thank you." She told Hera. Hera smiled sadly at her.

"I honestly didn't want this. I might not have seen eye to eye with you all along, but I honestly never would have dreamed this up on you." Annabeth nodded. "But the fates did. All you can do is what you do best Annabeth; be strong."

And Annabeth woke up. She was lying next to Percy, one of his arms wrapped around her, and she nearly started crying right there. She got up, carefully so she wouldn't wake him up.

Not tonight.

She tip-toed above deck. Quinn was awake and Annabeth offered a smile and she raised a fist to show Quinn power. Quinn nodded with a small smile, and turned to her side. A corner of Annabeth's mind wondered what her little sister was hearing about tonight, but most of it demanded fresh air.

Percy was as stubborn as an ass. If you told him to go right his feet would take him to the left by some kind of damned instinct. If you told him to stay and wait (not that many people were stupid enough to even try), he'd be right at your heels in about ten seconds.

But he could be controlled. And Annabeth suddenly realised that even if he'd been invulnerable, he'd always been so vulnerable to _that_.

He thought about him rushing away from Camp and adding himself on the quest to San Francisco when they were only thirteen, coming back from Ogyjia where he'd have been safe, or how mad and freaked out he'd been when she'd gotten stabbed by Ethan Nakamura during the Titan War.

And that was _before _they were officially dating.

He'd nearly sacrificed the Sibylline books for her. And he'd _known _what was at stake, what those books really meant and what kind of power they had… What if they were dealing with Gaia, and she had Annabeth in one hand and an item of power of some sort in the others? What if Ella wasn't there? Or Jason, or Piper, Frank, or someone else who had a chance at talking some sense into him? He certainly didn't listen to _her_ when they were in that kind of situation.

She leaned against the railing heavily; the smell of saltwater filled her nose and drops sprinkled her face. She took a deep breath.

He cared too much for her, and she wasn't that hard to capture. She was the perfect hostage in a perfectly deadly plan for the Olympians.

And it was now her job to make sure he didn't care anymore.


	46. XVIII Leo

**Brotip #61- If you realise you like somebody, tell them before someone else does. .**

**Anyways, most comments went something like 'NOOOOO!' or 'Don't do it!' My replies went like; 'You'll see!' So now you do. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Same as the first!**

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><p>XX<p>

Leo

July 12th

"Why are we always stuck making breakfast?" Frank muttered.

"Because we're the only two idiots who are actually awake in the morning," Leo said.

"I think Percy fakes it," Frank said.

"Probably," Leo said. "Smart one."

"No, it's because you are great at spreading peanut butter on bread," Hazel told them. "It's, like, your God-given skill."

"Right; because I can turn into an elephant when I feel like it, Leo here bursts into flames whenever he gets hyper-"

"More hyper," Leo corrected.

"More hyper," Frank said; "But that doesn't really fit in as a God-given skill, now does it? I mean, we're your kind of average-Joe fitting-in people if it weren't for peanut butter." Hazel laughed, and her eyes glittered like literal gold. And for a second, so did Frank's when he heard her laugh.

"Comic relief," she said. "We keep you in here for now, and save the comic relief for supper. Gosh, where is it?" She asked turning back to her pile of stuff (the boat had started out as organised and clean, now it was piles of things that spread around whenever the boat took off or lurched).

"What are you looking for?" Frank asked.

"I'm looking for the book on computers, because I _still _don't get what in Olympus a pixel's supposed to be."

"Ella was reading it yesterday," Frank said. "At least… I think that's why she's been muttering about hyperlinks."

"Hyper-what?" Hazel asked sounding oh-so confused.

"Look in her pile," Frank shrugged. She did and found it.

"Yeay- thanks Frank!" She said before heading above deck. Leo punched a knife through the top of the peanut butter jar's seal until she was out of sight.

"You like her, don't you?"

"Hazel? Yeah, she's my friend."

"No, I mean… Like, _like _Hazel_._"

"No, what are you talking about?" Frank asked, taking the clip thing off the bread. His fingers smashed it in two.

"Well, you look at her, and it's like she's the most important thing in the world. And you always try to make her laugh, and cheer her up; and you actually get to her a lot. More than the rest of us when her world's falling apart." Leo said.

"So what?" Frank said. "Everybody wants to help each other on here."

"Not as much as you and Hazel," Leo said. "Wait a sec… Is that why you've been avoiding me?"

"Leo, what are you-"

"You've been avoiding me, because you thought _I _was Sammy, like she did. You thought_ I_ liked her, and that she'd end up liking me too, and not you."

"I don't get what you're saying." Frank said stubbornly.

"Stop denying it. Damn Romans, you do it all the time," Leo said, annoyed with Frank now. "Nobody cares that you like Hazel, we think it's great."

"Leo, shut up!" Frank said, slamming the knife on the little counter. "You don't get it!"

"Well explain it to me, man. 'Cause all I've been getting is super bad vibes from you!" Leo said, throwing what he had in his hands on the counter too, super frustrated with this guy now. Come on, he'd been putting up with this, but it was about time now. "What's so wrong with me? Actually, screw that; it's the fire, isn't it?"

"I've always been told to stay away from fire." Frank said, suddenly not as mad anymore. Maybe even a bit afraid.

"I see. And I'm poster child for fire disasters of course," Leo said. "Which makes me demon spawn all of a sudden?"

"Leo, quit it." Frank said, locking his jaw.

"No, I won't! I'm sorry I'm a freaking menace, but you're just going to have to live with that!"

"Look Valdez," Frank said. "I don't care about what you are to the rest of the world, but to me, you're my death penalty, so shut up and beat it!"

Leo froze for a second. He'd never seen Frank so coldly angry. Usually that was reserved for Annabeth or Reyna or something.

"What the heck do you mean death penalty?" Leo said. Suddenly he was mad too. He had enough of Frank's avoiding him and this apparently greater reason for everything that hadn't come out before. "I have creepy gifts just as much as you, Zhang!"

"You have no idea," Frank said. "And quiet down before Piper thinks we lost it and she gets here. I don't want to explain this to her." That made Leo want to yell out her name, but he didn't want to explain this either.

Leo grabbed the counter and tightened his fingers around it. As far as he was concerned, they _had _lost it. Frank's hands were shaking in anger, and he was still boiling mad, he was just boiling mad and sensible enough not to want Piper around.

Flames flickered around his hand, and Frank walked back.

"You're afraid of fire?" Leo asked.

"You… You don't understand," Frank said. "My life is going to end by fire. I was told."

"Ah. And this immediately means _my _fire?" Leo asked.

"Look, when your life depends on a stick that's already half-burned, and there's so much worth living for…" And Leo just knew Frank was talking about Hazel, "You get twitchy."

"So you carry this stick around, and if it catches fire you die-"

"Painfully," Frank put in.

"I tend to associate 'death' to 'painful' when it comes to demigods automatically." Leo said. "And so you're avoiding me just because?"

"I don't have the stick," Frank said. "Hazel does."

"Which is why you don't want me around her," Leo finished.

"Partially," Frank said. "But I'm not_ that_ selfish. Look Leo, she's a good person, but she's a good person that bad things have happened to. Her whole freaking life. Time after time. And now she's getting a second life, and bad things are still happening to her. It hurt her whenever she looked at you, I can tell. And it's dangerous for her. I intend on making sure Hazel lives through this so she can do her time in the legion, graduate from college, marry a guy somewhere and do everything she never got the chance to do in New Orleans, maybe more. I don't care what it costs, but she will make it. And you jeopardized that."

Leo sighed and leaned back against the counter.

"You know what, I don't like fire either." Leo said. "If I want to be really honest with you, it's already hurt someone I love. Really badly. To the point that they can't be hurt anymore."

Leo sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and he couldn't believe he was telling this to _Frank. _"I'm an orphan for a reason. Gaia came when I was a kid and she scared the Styx out of me; so much it sparked a flame and burned down a workshop. My mom was in there."

He swallowed and his vision got a little hazy for a second. But he looked back to Frank.

"If you think I'm going to let something happen to someone else… I'm not. Hazel's at the top of the list of people that I'd protect at any cost; just like the rest of the people here, and my little bro who's, like, eight and thinks I'm a god." Leo said.

Frank looked at Leo and for a second, he thought he'd blown it. That Frank was just going to freak out right there and lose it.

"Okay," he said. "Fine. I'm sorry I wasn't straight with you from the start."

"Ditto, man," Leo said. "We're cool?"

"Except for you, you're the fire guy." Frank said. Leo cracked a grin and his fist bumped Frank's.

"Hey, I never said this, but I'm not even involved in this whole Hazel thing. It's you she likes, I'm just really random. As per usual, of course." Leo said. Frank nodded.

"You guys are slow today," someone said. They turned around and saw Annabeth who was picking up a book (what was it with every single half-blood reading? Was everyone really that bored?)

"Umm… Short attention span?" Leo offered.

"You opened the peanut butter jar and left it there," Annabeth noticed, raising an eyebrow.

"Very short attention span?" Frank offered again.

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><p><strong>Replies to the Anonymous<strong>

**Note for you guys:** Try to post your comments with the newest chapter/s or else I'll forget to answer :(

**Anon- **_why isnt piper and jason together. that is not right. wat is wrong with u. will they be together. please reply.- _What's wrong with me... Hmm, want a list?

A serious reply: I like Jason and Reyna together better. In my head Piper and Jason's relationship came out of a lie, Piper has a bit of growing up to do, and I like the chemistry Reyna and Jason have. Also, watch your wording. I am not only talking about your grammar, but also the tone. That and the 'u stink' comment I sort-of ignored. Someone's going to take it seriously and spazz on you.

**Kronosdied- **Hmm, is this a Last Song Was Perfect referance? Because I'm planning on it. And the Fanpop MoA gets updated regularly; usually even a few hours before this one.

**Kayce- **Aww thanks! Don't worry; at some point they're all going to smash together.

**Thunderbolt- **Aww thanks! I'm glad you think so :) And yes, I did think of the Scorpion. I just need them to hit solid land. And I like the idea of the Python! Khione's demain is wherever the freak Khione decides it is :) (And wherever the author agrees it is at).

Sorry if I missed one of you guys!


	47. XIX Annabeth

**Brotip #1597- Be the person your dog thinks you are.**

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><p>XIX<p>

Annabeth

July 12th (evening of)

A lot of things made Annabeth nervous. Spiders (although 'terror' might be a better word), exams, monsters, _whenever Percy was out of her vision or contact for more than a few days because gods knew what was going on, _quests, that look Chiron sometimes got, when her stepbrothers asked her deep questions…

But now she just felt sick. She hadn't fallen asleep, and she'd purposefully moved her sleeping bag next to Quinn's during the day when they were talking philosophy with Ella and Jason (surprisingly, yes, Jason) so she wouldn't have to be anywhere near Percy after this.

She hated it, but she had to do it. She had to at least try. And if they both lived… If they both lived, she'd admit to him that it was all an enormous and painful lie, even if he'd hate her forever anyways.

But they had to live through it first, she reminded herself, and this was how she made sure of it.

Everyone was asleep, and even Quinn had managed to fall asleep with Annabeth holding her hand and whispering in her ear. She made a note to herself on that, for another night. She undid the zipper of her sleeping bag and pulled a hoody over her pyjamas. Slowly, carefully, making sure the floorboard didn't creak too much; she got up and tiptoed up to where Percy was sleeping. She froze for a few seconds. His hair fell in his face when he slept, and he didn't drool anymore. He looked really peaceful when he slept, and she could actually see his face and admire his traits when he was sleeping, because he wasn't moving and running around trying to make ends meet.

Half of Annabeth's brain (the half that represented mind over heart) slapped the other and got her to shake him awake.

"Above deck," she whispered before he could make a sound. If he woke up the others she wouldn't work up the guts to do what she was about to do. Luckily they'd both snuck out a fair bit already, so he knew the drill.

She waited at the stairs while he looked around and shook his head to get his focus, and he climbed right behind them.

The deck was impossibly still and quiet considering it was the scene of bomb-making, sparring, morphing, tinkering, drawing, running, insulting, talking, eating and gods-knew-how-many-other-things during the day.

He put his arms around her from behind and kissed the top of her head. She nearly cried, but somehow managed to hold it together.

"So what's up?" He asked. She was nearly about to just melt right there and let the night go. But she pushed her way out of his arms anyways.

"I had to talk to you." She said.

"Okay," he said sitting on the railing of the ship. "About what?"

Annabeth's throat clogged up. With a few kicks from her conscience and a brief reminder of the English language, she managed to bring up: "I want to break up with you."

Even in the dark, she saw his face fall.

"W… What?" He asked.

_Please don't make me say it twice… _"I want to break up with you."

Then she remembered her character, and crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.

"What but…" He looked confused; and not his usual "sorry I zoned out on that 7+ syllable word" or "son of who?" kind of "what". He understood what was going on, but he didn't at the same time.

"Why? What did I… What did I do?"

Annabeth had to use all the self-control she'd developed after years of Mr D, new campers, and siblings to use the story she'd made up. _Be vague, he'll hate you for it. _"Nothing. That's exactly the problem!" She said. "All these months I wanted you back so bad, and now that I do… I don't know. It doesn't feel the same. Maybe it was just a summer fling after all. Maybe I just really liked the idea of being with the saviour of Olympus. Either way Percy, I don't think this is it, and there's no point."

He looked at her without processing anything. Annabeth wasn't sure the lie was even good.

"What?" He asked again. _Be mean he'll hate you for it._

"You are so thick!" She ranted. "You just can't keep up with anything can you? Not even this one, simple, so predictable concept? We're over."

And she turned her back and darted down the stairs.

But she took the second flight that led to the engine room hoping that the engine noises would cover up her crying.


	48. XX Frank, Leo, Percy

**Most other comments were quite repetitive and entertaining to me for some twisted reason.**

**Anyways, I'm posting tonight 'cause WHO KNOWS if I'll have time tomorrow. I need to pack, prepare, costume, eat, breathe. Oh, and school. I plan on putting up a Hunger Games one-shot on as a tribute. No, not the battling kind. Sorry, lame Hunger Games pun.**

**Enjoy this!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own. I don't seem to own anything but the clothes on my back, my USB stick, a myriad of pens, and a ticket to go see The Hunger Games.**

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><p>XX<p>

Frank

July 13

"You don't look so good," Frank told Percy. Percy had been quiet all morning, even before breakfast. Tyson had been hanging around his brother and patting him on a back, sort-of like you'd get something out of a chocking person's throat, but from Tyson that was 'friendly' and 'supportive'.

Frank had also noticed that Annabeth wasn't looking at him too, she'd been talking to Quinn or Piper or Ella the whole morning. Now they were the only two of them under deck, putting dishes away. Percy didn't look right at all, like someone had unplugged all the wires in a computer and stuck them back in random sockets.

"You okay, man?" Frank asked again.

"Yeah," Percy said as unconvincingly as was humanely possible.

"You're a bad liar," Frank said. "What's wrong?"

Percy just took a deep breath and tilted his head back. He looked at Frank, who'd never seen him this lost before. Even without his memory, he'd still been centered around at least a few scraps of his own life, or his goals. But now… He looked lost.

"Annabeth broke up with me."a

Frank's jaw dropped and he was pretty sure that that didn't help Percy's case, so he closed his mouth.

"Oh man, sorry…" Percy didn't even shrug it off.

"What happened?" Frank asked. Maybe he could… fix it? Or convince someone with skills to fix it..? _Piper-_ that was who.

"No idea," Percy said. "But something did. I think she got tired of waiting for me and… And I was better in her head." His face suddenly grimaced like it was hurt. He looked like he needed a hug. Frank would find someone for that too. _Hazel- _that would work. Or maybe also Piper. No wait- Tyson.

At that second Jason got down the stairs and looked at Percy and Frank.

"Percy, can I talk to you when you're done?" He asked.

"If it's about his face, don't bother." Frank said. Percy didn't even roll his eyes or anything, he just turned back.

"Yeah," Jason said. "Umm, Percy are you okay?"

Percy kicked the dishwasher door shut.

"She broke up with me." He said.

Jason had been trained since a young age to hide all emotion, so he didn't react.

"What?"

"You know what," Percy snapped, not at all trained to hide anger and frustration, and something Frank thought might just be plain hurt.

"Sorry man," Jason said. "What..?"

"He doesn't know." Frank answered for Percy. Jason gave Percy a pat in the back.

"It'll be okay," he promised. And he said it in a way that made you think it'd rain lollipops and loonies tomorrow.

"You wouldn't know Jason, because_ she's_ still in New Rome." Percy said.

Oh great, Reyna had just been brought into a really intense conversation.

"In jail!" Jason frowned in a way that made Frank think he should either turn into something big and beefy now, or run.

"Yeah, but she didn't get tired and bored of waiting for you, and then of you." Percy said.

"Reyna doesn't wait for anyone," Jason said. "She's like Annabeth. You have to work to get to her. And once you're in, it's hard to get kicked out again. Percy, you didn't lose Annabeth. I don't know what happened, but you did _not _lose her."

"Yes I did." He snapped. He closed his eyes and seemed to regain control. "And that's the one thing I've been fighting freaking hard not to do since I could swing a sword."

Frank and Jason left him his second of holding his jaw shut airlock-tight and hitting on the counter.

"Look, I appreciate it guys but… Please just leave me alone."

"Okay," Jason said. "Sorry."

"Sure," Frank said. Percy walked away towards the engine room –where people only went when they were really sick of the rest of the crew.

"He's serious," Frank said, still dumbfound. "Really? Weren't they kissing on the deck the other day?"

"And the one before that," Jason said, "And the one before that too. She wasn't tired of waiting for him; I swear on the River Styx, she was counting down days until the solstice."

"Yeah, I believe you." Frank said. He was a sort of romantic dope. He'd maybe dated two girls in his life, none of which were really great, and the girl he liked more than anything else before or present was back from the dead. But he could _at least _see when a girl likes a guy. About 50% of the time. Maybe 47. Okay, 38.

"Let's just stay out of it," Jason said. "Give him some space."

"I don't get it," Frank said.

"I'll talk to Piper later. Maybe the girls know." Jason said.

That was sort of what happened the whole day.

Percy and Annabeth didn't talk, which was basically the elephant in the room (or mammoth in the ship). The silence weighed on everyone.

Jason must've talked to Piper because Frank walked downstairs, and interrupted the girls who were talking loudly about something. It took about two seconds for them to chase him back upstairs with the rest of the guys. Leo cocked his head, and Frank shrugged back.

"Why is Annabeth mad at you?" Frank asked Hazel at some point in the afternoon when he'd figured out something was wrong between the two girls.

"I…" Hazel blushed, and she looked at the floor. Frank had to knock himself out of his trail of thoughts, going something like 'she's cute… She's _really_ cute. She's beautiful.'

"What did you do?" Frank teased.

"I got involved. Quinn and I were just walking by, and Piper and Annabeth were talking, so we walked up and… Well… We got involved."

"What did you tell her?" Frank asked.

"I told her that whatever reason she had for breaking up with Percy wasn't valid." Hazel said, tilting her head up proudly like she still believed it. Frank scoffed.

"Hazel," he said wondering how she was still alive.

"I know, I know." She said rolling her gold eyes. "But I gave Percy his own tour, and I've seen him on our quest, on this quest… And he's so sad right now, and that's not okay, so what was I supposed to say? 'Sure, I completely understand why you senselessly broke up with him!'"

"Why did she break up with Percy, anyways?" Frank asked.

"I don't know, she only told Piper, if even that." Hazel said. She looked up at Frank.

"How did it change? Things change so quickly. I don't want things to change." She suddenly looked as scared and vulnerable as the other night when she'd broken down.

"Yeah, some things do." Frank said thinking about his own Mom, or the first time he'd shape-shifted, or the way his Grandmother was now a captive of Gaia (he wasn't sure whether to be scared for Grandmother or for Gaia). "But some things don't. And I promise I won't change around you." He said.

Hazel looked up at him and smiled weakly.

"You're sweet," Hazel said. Frank hugged her and she dropped her head on his chest. It was a calm moment, and at least she looked calm; but Frank's head and heart were going a million miles an hour to have her so close.

He thought back to what Leo had said about Hazel not giving a damn about him or Sammy or anybody else but him. All he had to do was admit that he really liked her, or lean down and kiss her…

"And I hope you're right." She said, snuggling closer to him. Frank's arms tightened around her.

Actually; this was all he needed.

Suddenly Quinn walked down from the deck really fast, and she looked about as approachable as a swarm of bees. A very small swarm of bees of course, but that was still a swarm of bees.

"Quinn, what's wrong?" Hazel asked anyways, taking a step away from Frank. Quinn muttered something in quick Quebec French that Frank didn't catch but didn't sound so good; and disappeared to the engine room.

"What was that about?" Hazel asked.

"No idea. We've been over the fact that my French sucks." Frank said. Piper was walking down the stairs. She crossed the room, not looking very surprised to see Frank and Hazel at hugging distance, and put a finger gun to her head and shot.

"The world's falling apart," she declared. "I render our quest officially useless, so we should just go home." she said, before disappearing downstairs after Quinn. Frank scoffed.

"Poor Pipes," he said.

"Yeah," Hazel said although her mind wasn't there. "I feel bad for Percy. Should we go talk to him?"

"He's sparring with Jason. This isn't the best time." Frank said. "Come on, let's go find out why the world's falling apart.

Turned out; Percy and Annabeth were the ones fighting. Except they'd gotten so mad that they were now yelling at each other in Ancient Greek and nobody had a clue what was going on; and it didn't help that when she came back up, Piper was trying to talk over them (also in Ancient Greek of course). They shot Jason a look, but Jason put his hands up. Frank remembered that Ancient Greek was completely lost on him.

"Leo," Hazel asked the nearest speaker of Greek. "What are they saying?"

Leo made a face.

"I can't translate."

"What do you mean you can't translate, aren't you Greek? Don't you speak it?" Frank asked him.

"'Course I am," Leo said. "That doesn't mean I have the right to swear."

Annabeth yelled something, Percy yelled something back, Piper yelled something even louder and it made Frank mad that he couldn't understand Greek and listen to her for a second. As he realised it was the charmspeak, they froze to look at her. She talked for a second, before sending them each their own way, both of them looking angry and full of angst. Percy went to go hit on something under deck and Annabeth exiled herself to the engine room.

"I'm scared for the safety of my pipes," Leo muttered.

"Good job Pipes," Jason said quietly to Piper. She looked at them with big eyes.

"I can't believe I just did that." Piper said. "Styx, it extends to everyone, doesn't it? Fighting?" She looked upset.

"Are you okay?" Frank asked her.

"It feels so… Wrong. I mean, I know, nobody saw it coming, but like… Something in the pit of the stomach about this whole thing is just… Oh crud, it's the Aphrodite genes." She said.

"Maybe," Jason said. Piper rubbed her eyes.

"Nearly everybody told me that when they weren't dating, they were horrible. That they bit each other's heads off about everything and didn't get along… That's what my sisters said. Gosh, I hope we don't go back to that."

"Piper, don't stress." Jason said.

"Yeah; you help out enough Beauty queen. I promise I won't get on anybody's nerves to give you a break." Leo said.

"Well that's reassuring." Piper muttered.

"See, this is why I don't deal with organic life forms." Leo said like he'd just proved the meaning of life.

Hazel and Frank crossed glances with Jason and Piper.

"It's his thing," Piper said. "Accept it."

Hazel

She found Quinn in the engine room, a book opened on her knees, and her head resting back like she was sleeping. She was sleeping; the day was the best time for her to do that. When else? For a second Hazel thought about slipping Quinn's glasses off her nose and putting them at her side and leaving her alone, but there was food involved.

"Quinn," she said gently shaking her awake. Quinn groaned the 'I don't want to wake up' groan.

"Hazel?" She said.

"Yeah, it's me, and I'd leave you alone, but its supper time and cold cooking is bad, but cold food made by Jason and Percy is worst." Hazel said. Quinn's eyes fluttered open.

"I guess you're right," she said stretching her arms above her head.

"Why were you down here in the first place?"

"Me? Oh, I had a fight with Annabeth and Percy spoke up for me telling her to stop acting that way with everyone, but I left before things could explode." Quinn said.

"You fought with Annabeth?"

"It really wasn't much," Quinn said. "I talked to her because… Because I thought that she wasn't happy."

"Why?" Hazel asked. "She broke up with him. Did you see something last night? Were you up?"

"Not really," Quinn said. "I can just… Tell. I saw them both go upstairs and I guess I fell asleep because I woke up next morning when Frank tripped up the stairs."

"Oh well," Hazel said. "Nobody knows what's happening, it's just confusing." She held out her hand and Quinn took it and let herself get hauled up.

"I have a question for you," she said.

"What is it?" Quinn asked.

"You know that night when everyone was up and everything came out?" Hazel asked.

A.K.A. when she'd collapsed and Quinn had told them about the voices.

"Yes," Quinn said delicately.

"Jason told us who had been taken," Hazel said. "And he said Jedediah Adams."

"You know him?" Quinn asked.

"Not much," she admitted. "But Thalia, Nico, Sammy and Mrs. Zhang were taken for Jason, Frank and I… So I was wondering that if Jedediah was taken for you… You were his friend, weren't you?"

Quinn crinkled her nose.

"Can you keep a secret?" Quinn asked.

"Of course I can. Story of my life." Hazel said.

"Jedediah and I were friends. But it was a bit more." Quinn blushed.

"I get it," Hazel nodded.

"He… It's complicated, but I couldn't let him think there was a chance. He gave up on me in New Rome, which I guess makes sense. But I didn't." Quinn said.

"I thought so." Hazel said. "It'll be okay, right? We'll get all the hostages back."

"I hope so. I just want him to be safe." Quinn said.

"Maybe then you can have your chance with him." Hazel encouraged. Quinn looked down.

"I don't think so." Quinn said. "Come on, we should get moving; cold Jason and Percy food really is horrible."

Leo

Jane took her key ring from her side; it hung next to her knife. She wiggled a key in the lock and it opened for her. She stepped inside and closed it quickly after recovering her keys. She stepped down the staircase and met Cedric at the back. He sprung to his feet when he saw her.

"Where are the others? They've been moved. They were my mates, I counted some of them as _friends _so if they are dead_-" _He said immediately.

"Relax," Jane said. "They're not dead. They were simply moved to a prison with easier access; it makes them easier to feed and such."

Worry and stress obviously melted from Cedric, and his shoulders slacked, but he covered his tracks.

"And you don't want to keep me nice and chubby?" He asked teasingly.

"Your mouth is big enough to make up for any skinniness anywhere else in your body." Jane said.

"'Kay repair girl," he said. "Harm my self-confidence all you want, but that's not why you're here."

"Might as well be," Jane said. "I greatly enjoy it."

"You enjoy my witty and hysterical comebacks. Do you have the maps?"

"Of course I do," she said. She unrolled a sketchy map of the United States. "Troops will be sent here, here and here. I assume that the Greeks will strike here and here."

"Nope," Cedric said. He held out his finger through the bars and touched it to a spot on the map. "There. The attack is being concentrated, to overwhelm."

"Perfect. I will remove all troops, and concentrate them elsewhere. You know, that temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Pennsylvania would be nice to recover."

"I'll contact the other Greek general and tell her to concentrate the troops away. You send the Romans there, and I'll organise for it to be deserted and easy to take. Do you have my coins?"

"Yes, I managed to take them out of the Principia. I said that instead of being spoils of war, we could melt them down for arrow tips." Jane said.

"Smart," Cedric said holding out his hand. Jane dropped a few gold coins. "How are you going to cover the tracks when it becomes clear that you didn't melt them down?"

"I shall melt one of my butterfly knives," Jane said. "And create my arrowheads out of that. I will say that with a blessing of Vulcan, the metal has shifted to gold. They will love the explanation. Although I still fail to understand your bizarre method of messaging."

"I explained it to you. It's called an Iris Message; the goddess grants it to us when we throw a coin through a rainbow."

"You must be colour blind, because here I see no rainbow." Jane said.

"What part of 'son of Hecate' do you not get?" Cedric said. "The magical child part, or the powers?"

"No, you look very much like a daughter of something." Jane said.

"That hurts." Cedric said. "Either way, I'll make a rainbow, trust me. You guys will get your temple back."

"It feels odd to work with you. My whole life I was told you were the inferior trouble makers of the world. I was told we could squash you under our sandals. That I shouldn't even touch you."

"Well that seems quite mean."

"-But here I am strategizing with you, and finding your disrespectful, rude, disorderly and arrogant temper… Alright."

"I'm alright?" Cedric perked up. "Why, I'm flattered, Jane Stone. Yes, I was fed a similar lie, although it was more about your little arrogance and feeling of superiority- which so far proves to be true, with a bit less of a dramatic and egomaniacal flare. And I won't pretend I enjoy being thought of as scum- but…" it was the first time ever that Cedric Bailey had ever stumbled on a word, "There is one thing I do enjoy here."

"And what would that be?" Jane asked. "Not the food, the décor is quite drab and grey for you cultured Greeks, I doubt the lighting makes your heart skip a beat…"

"You." Cedric said quickly.

"Me?" Jane narrowed her eyes. "Me?"

"Well, unless I was talking to the wall, or possibly to the rat that dallies in Joseph's old cell…" Cedric said.

Jane had become red in the cheeks, which was another first. "You aren't pulling my leg?"

"No ma'am. Why such the inclination to believe I'm a fraud?" Cedric asked.

"I'm not the first choice of anybody in this camp, to be honest with you."

"See Jane, I know more than one tough girl. It's like you all have this calling, demigoddesses. 'I'm supposed to be weak? Oh, then I'll just twist Cedric's arm and make a point to the world'. Trust me; I know.

But I've never seen anybody who's quite so… Deadly while being calculated. And it isn't your first calling is it? Being tough. You fix things. That's what you like doing best. I've heard you talking about screws and bolts, and you don't seem as scary. You look more like a good friend. A strong friend. A friend I'd like to have. And another time you seem to take off the bloodstained mask is when you told me about your brother. That one time."

Jane looked away.

"It's a sore subject." Jane said.

"That kind of makes you beautiful too. Most girls count their brothers as the most annoying thing on earth."

"Oh he was," Jane asked. "Nearly as bad as you are. But… I'm the big sister. I take the bullets, not him. I suppose I messed up."

"You, Jane Stone, are humanely kept from messing up." Cedric said.

"Oh yes? Even if I were to do something very stupid?"

"Even if you were to do the stupidest thing on earth," Cedric said. Jane leaned in towards the bars. Then Leo realised it was towards Cedric's face, and then they kissed and Leo thought 'oh da-yum guys'. Cedric's hand passed through the bars and rested on the back of her head, bringing her closer to him.

But Leo knew, somehow, deep down, that they were further away from each other than any two people ever.

Percy

He hated it. He hated being around her without it being the 'her' he'd known since August and had waited for during his quest. Not the girl that'd come to him in Rome when the ship landed. He felt like it was doppelganger Annabeth; and that wasn't his ego speaking.

Because bad enough he got dumped, but there were other people on that ship crowding around him now, cutting his breathing room and asking questions he was asking himself.

_Summer fling._ That was a word she'd used last night, he remembered everything clearly. It was always the worst nightmares you remembered.

Was that really it? They hadn't been going out for so long when he went missing. A few months; and they hadn't been able to see each other every day during those months. It was every now and then; something to look forwards for. Maybe she was right (a part of him yelled that Annabeth was always right). But if she was, Percy was really out there, because he'd never thought that it was just a summer fling. At least it didn't feel like it was just that.

He sat at one end of the mealtime blob with Jason, Frank and Hazel. Annabeth was at the other and he tried not to watch her. He hadn't talked to her -gods forbid- since the fight.

She'd been talking to Quinn in Latin and Percy could tell that something wasn't right. To tell you the truth; he'd been a little ticked off that she was going to make Quinn feel horrible too, and he was miserable which was when that impulsiveness was at its worst. Without knowing what was going on for sure either. So he'd spoken up (okay, it was more of calling her out for something he wasn't 100% sure about, but come on!), and next thing he knew, they were yelling in Ancient Greek with Piper –_Piper _the _peacekeeper_- toning it down.

For the rest of the day he'd tried to act like it was no big deal even if it broke his heart- which was a really old and cliché sentence, but there really was no other way to describe it. He felt like some monster had gotten through his skin, into his chest and then on a rampage. Plus he was confused.

It didn't look like all of Lupa's 'neutrality and fierceness' lessons were working out right then and there. Probably because it wasn't one thing he was meant to hide, it was bigger than that. Annabeth may just be one person, but what was that thing they said? 'It only takes one person to save the world'? Annabeth had changed Percy's world. She'd always been there some way or another. And then she'd removed herself from it and said some pretty hurtful things.

Anyways, Jason, Frank and Leo shot him looks all the time and Hazel looked like she wanted to give him a hug. Tyson actually _gave _him a hug, Quinn had been 'observing' both of he and Annabeth like they were lab experiences and she'd just have to wait and see where it all went. Ella had been quoting sad love quotes that Percy didn't find really helpful, but he guessed that it was the best that the harpy could do.

Which was honestly better than what Percy could do right now.

Frank

July 14th

Leo dropped on deck, shoulders slumped as he sat, and groaned.

"Shoot. Me."

"I would, but that sounds like a little overkill. Literally. What's wrong?" Frank asked.

"Girls." Leo said.

"Which one?" Jason asked looking at Leo funny.

"Not any of yours, don't worry. Or Quinn. Or Piper. Actually, never mind, it's all of the above." Leo said.

"What did they do to you?" Percy asked.

"I don't know, but they're all downstairs, and I come down, I ask them why they're freaking out, and I get kicked out. On my own boat!"

"On a floor of your boat," Jason specified.

"Still! How insulting!" Leo said like you'd just insulted his mother or something like that.

"What are they talking about?" Percy asked.

"Well I don't know I got kicked out. Girl problems or something taboo like that."

"Oh…" Percy and Jason went.

"What?" Leo asked.

"Valdez; you learn this after going on a couple of quests with girls," Jason said. "Give them breathing room or they'll cut yours."

"Yeah, but you hang out around violent girls." Percy said shoving Jason.

"Yeah, meanwhile Rachel, Clarisse and Katie are peace activists," Jason said shoving him back avoiding the name 'Annabeth'.

"Look; girl problems, are not your concern. You should try really hard to make sure they stay that way too."

"Yeah, whenever that comes up, back away." Jason said. "Let them handle it, that's what they _want._ Don't even try to help._"_

"It's the same as school though, isn't it? Girls are cool to hang out with but sometimes it's like 'retreat! Retreat!''

"I never said I didn't know that, I just said they're fudging complicated." Leo said. "What could be so bad?"

"You don't want to know." Jason said. "You honestly don't." 

"Girls are complicated." Tyson said.

"See?" Percy said. "Even Tyson knows and he spends, like, no time around mortals or demigods."

Leo shook his head like 'whatever'. "I have to go see what the engine's up to, because the noises are fu-"

Suddenly the Argo II stopped moving.

And we all know what happens to things in flight that stop moving…

* * *

><p><span>Luvseaweedbrain- Umm, there there?<span>

Anon- I am deeply sorry. 

Bigfan- Jeyna for the win! And it'll get explained better, but really she just thought Octavian liked _her _and she wanted more of Rome's power. You average reasons to murder your fellow praetor, you know?

Limpet Lamppost- You have the coolest username EVER!

Percabethforever234- Glad you… 'Liked' it?

Percyjacksons1- Satisfied? And 'course I wouldn't hate you, why would I?

Random Anon who didn't comment here but did and asked for forgiveness- No problem! 


	49. XXI Jason, Leo, Malcolm

**Hi! Sorry this is later- I've been... unwell, sick, randomly in pain. Anyways, I've stayed away from computers and screens and using my fingers overly much, so I've just reviewed it, gone over to Fanpop and posted, and now I'm posting here. I hope you enjoy it! I'm sorry to the annonymous reviewers I'm not going to answer questions this week to -once again- spare finger joints. If there's a question you really want answered, just ask it again and I'll get it this week. Sorry, thanks for all the reviews, love and CC!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own!**

* * *

><p>XXI<p>

Jason

July 14th

Suddenly both he and Percy crashed to the ground and slid down to the bow –the front of the boat- as it lurched. He grabbed Percy's hand and managed to summon a burst of wind to push the son of Poseidon back onboard.

He looked up. He heard some people screaming and his heart froze in his chest- what if someone had gotten thrown against the engine or the weapons crate? He heard Frank swear and someone yelled something in Ancient Greek.

"Ella go to safe!" Tyson yelled. Ella popped through the hole carrying the Sibylline books in a box Quinn and Annabeth had patented for her, attached to a rope so Ella could carry them.

Okay; two things off the 'problem' list, he thought. It was now time to move on to answer the 'WTH?' situation and figure out what to do with everybody else.

"Bad. Boat has a booboo. Booboo break. Yep, yep, yep." Ella said, getting further in the air as the boat dove.

"Leo!" Jason yelled. Leo was hanging off the steering wheel. He pulled himself upright with that upper body strength that came with the intense forge-time he'd been pulling off, and bonked on a few navigational pieces. The screen burst off of one and a red light beeped about two seconds too late. An electronic female voice said 'Yo Leo, you've got engine problems. Yo Leo, you've got engine problems. Yo Leo,'…

"I know!" He yelled at the boat, fumbling with a screwdriver. The wind pushed it out of his hand. He swore and took out another one.

Somehow Annabeth managed to pull herself onto the deck.

"Leo- what do you want me to do?" She asked.

"Give me a sec!" Leo pulled two wires together and there was a zapping/static noise, and the boat suddenly stopped freefalling. It stayed at a crooked angle.

"Is everyone alright?" Jason called with the loud kind of voice he used during muster or war games. There were a mix of strangled answers, but nobody said 'no I'm hurt and bleeding to my death' so Jason counted that as good. He was going to ask Annabeth if everybody who hadn't been on deck [read: the girls] was okay, but suddenly the boat jerked to an upright position, sending everyone bumping around. Quinn materialised herself above deck, and Annabeth Leo and Quinn were quickly engaged in tech-talk.

"It's the engine; I think they're giving out again…"

"But the solar panel on the side of the boat was checked on this morning, it's well maintained every day." Annabeth drowned.

"We've been in saltwater, maybe the salt level did something." Quinn said.

"It was tested for that," Annabeth said.

"With water with the kind of salt found in the Atlantic?" Quinn asked.

"Camp Half-Blood is right on the Atlantic…" Annabeth said.

"I don't think it's a solar panel, it feels like the wiring went wrong…" Leo said. "I'd have to go check it out. I don't think that the freezing motion thing will last very long, no matter what Lou Ellen said about her magic, so please keep an eye on stuff here."

"Got it," Annabeth said. Quinn nodded and joined her sister to look at the GPS, and Leo jumped below deck.

"We should get off the ship," Percy said. "Just in case."

"I'll go talk to Leo," Jason said. You always had to talk to Leo when the Argo II was concerned. It was like his baby.

Percy nodded and Jason walked back under deck, Frank, Piper and Tyson looked exhausted.

"Are you guys okay?"

"No, I'm slowly bleeding to death as the life saps out of me," Piper said, as she got on deck. She gave him a smile, and Jason knew she was fine from the sarcasm.

"Yeah, I'm good." Frank said.

Tyson nodded and asked about Ella. Jason told her she _had_ taken off, with her books.

"The special books?" Tyson asked.

"Yes," Jason said before hoping on deck. He walked past the piles of sleeping bag and to the kitchen and found that the rug was pushed aside; all he had to do was lift the cover before dropping down to the engine room throughout the secret passage.

"Hey, Leo?" Jason called. The room's walls were full of pistons, gears locked with other gears, and big metal chunks that Jason had seen when they were wires and bits sprawled on tables.

"I'm under here!" He yelled. Jason dropped on his knees and looked under a massive bloc of metal that could've been bitten out of Talos the giant automaton. He saw Leo's curly hair.

"Okay, hey. Percy and I were wondering if you wanted to get people off the boat," he said. "We can hover, or go underwater." Jason said.

"There's just some rust on this bolt here, and the GPS's USB drive over here looks a bit off- and the panel is scratched for some reason that I can't believe I missed last time I was down here. I think we'll be okay." Leo explained.

The boat shuttered and Jason grabbed onto a metal chunk for balance. A blue spark flew off and if anybody else had been holding on, they'd have seen their life pass before their eyes.

"On second thought- go for it. But tell Annabeth or Quinn to come here. Better yet; both- brains are good."

"Alright," Jason said.

He went to report the news to the others.

"How did the panel get scratched?" Annabeth and Quinn said at once, which made Jason jump.

"I don't know, but it is." He said. "I'm not the tech guy."

"I'll stay up here. You'll need someone at the bar watching." Quinn said. Annabeth smiled at her, and headed down.

"Hazel shouldn't go underwater," Percy said. "I know that the sky isn't the best place for her either, but…"

"I get it," Hazel said. "I won't drown in the sky or repel air. Plus there's less hidden treasure chests in the sky." She added walking towards Jason. They took off, Hazel holding onto his arm for dear life (which it was), Jason cast a 'sorry' glance at Frank.

Percy and Piper jumped from the boat into the ocean, and Percy escorted Frank down to the water just in case. Once they hit water, Frank became a dolphin and did a flip just to be a show off (which was what Percy yelled at him). Piper reared onto her back and kicked, getting him.

He let out a whistle kind of sound that sounded like Tweety Bird, and started splashing both of them. Jason smiled and nearly wished he could go into the water.

"Do you want to go?" He asked Hazel, knowing that Pluto wasn't in the heat of the arguments between Jupiter and Neptune, which made her a bit safer in water than him.

Hazel made a face.

"I hate being wet," she said. "Child of the Underworld pet peeves, for you."

Suddenly Piper stifled a scream and Jason looked down at the water- where a thin was pointing out. Percy laughed, and held out his hand to the shark that _nudged him like a cat. _

"Mars Almighty," Hazel said. Jason agreed, but Percy just kept patting the shark and he was trying to talk Piper into it. He ended up grabbing her hand and she shrieked to get him to let go (she'd found out that shrieking did that to guys who thought she was afraid or in pain during a very funny incident involving Travis Stoll and a cat), but Percy didn't buy it and made her touch it anyways.

"They smell fear, Piper!" Jason yelled down.

"That's rich coming from you, up there!" She yelled back up. Hazel laughed, and Jason dropped for a few seconds and she gasped in shock.

"Jason!" She chided hitting his arm. It reminded Jason of Thalia doing it to him once. He bit his lip, he hadn't heard from the hostages in a long time, or had a dream. He just knew that Gaia had his sister, and that _that was not cool._

Frank was trying to jump up as high as them. Jason lowered to give the guy a break. Eventually Hazel got to run a hand on his head.

"Wow, it's smooth like a baby's skin," Hazel said. "Except wet."

"That's a dolphin, for you." Jason said.

Frank landed in the water again and came out making that annoying dolphin laughing sound.

Jason looked back up on the Argo II. So far no smoke, no explosions, fire, or screaming.

He heard the kind of whistle you'd call a taxi with and looked up just in time to spot Annabeth leaning over the railing.

"Hazel, we've got to go back up." Jason said. She nodded, even if he could sense she was a little disappointed.

"Want me to drop you down, and Percy will take care of you?"

Hazel crinkled her nose. "Boats; I've learnt to live with. Water itself; not so much."

They landed on deck.

"Where's Leo?" Jason asked when he spotted the two sisters.

"He's going on about something technical and wrong. He's muttering in Spanish, and neither one of us can understand a word." Annabeth said.

"But he spoke English," Quinn said. "Once."

"And it was to tell us that he had to land in the water because he wasn't sure how long it'd take him to fix it. He'd appreciate us docking too." Annabeth nodded.

"Docking? What's the nearest land?" Jason asked.

Quinn walked back towards the GPS attached near the other equipment and looked up smiling, a stub of land on the European continent blinking red.

"Spain," she said.

Leo

He appreciated the others being cool with this breakdown, because it made up for him. He was _nadda _happy about this. He couldn't figure out what it was; it was just like a bunch of mice-men had decided to take the Argo II's mechanics apart. Some of those places he had to squeeze in were really small for average sized people. Maybe Gaia had dwarves or mice-men working for her. Actually; Leo didn't want to know.

Besides; that couldn't be right. This was done expertly, by someone who knew mechanics. Heck, someone who knew about the Argo II's specific plans. It was weird.

But Jason took Annabeth and Quinn off the ship, and Leo landed it. It was rough, he was thrown a couple of feet back, but he was fine. The others gathered up except for Percy who was operating the currents from under. Luckily the coast wasn't far, they saw it creep up, a line of land growing bigger and bigger. Leo imagined that that was what Christopher Columbus and Jason, Odysseus, and all those other demigod sailors had felt like.

They managed to dock in Spain, Piper charm speaking a few middle-aged dock hands who spoke French into giving up about fifteen spots for the boat to fit.

"Will we pay them?" Hazel asked anxiously.

"With drachmas since that's all we have." Jason said.

"I found a quarter in my sleeping bag," Frank said.

"And none of us want to know how it got there," Piper said.

"I'll stay behind," Annabeth said. "I'll watch the ship, and keep an eye out for Leo. I mean, our boat's sort-of yelling out 'find me and hurt me'."

_Plus you want to stay away from Percy for reasons unknown after six months of desperate wait and frantic search, of course, _Leo thought. As a general rule, he couldn't keep up with Annabeth's trail of thoughts; but this was ridiculous.

"Me too," Piper said.

"No, you'll need people who speak French. That's as close to Spanish as you can get." Annabeth said. "Or as you can get, considering Leo's not going."

"Quinn speaks French," Piper protested.

"French Canadian is nothing like what they'd speak here," Quinn said, shaking her head. "The dialects change a lot. Believe me, I had a pen pal from France and via webcam, we couldn't understand each other."

"I know Spain," Jason volunteered.

To which everyone looked at him odd.

"When the Hades were you _ever_ in Spain?" Percy asked.

"Spain was conquered by Rome," Jason said. "It was part of the Empire. It's, like, programmed in my brain since I became praetor. And most of Europe, parts of Asia too; I think Reyna's the same."

"So you two talk about death, Octavian, Octavian's death, and the Google Map app inside your brains." Percy said.

"Shut up, Jackson, you know the whole freaking oceans by heart." Jason said.

"Okay; let's make it simple. If you have any idea how to work this boat- stay. If you don't- leave." Leo said. That was pretty strict on his behalf but he wanted these people out of here so he could fix his ship. He'd been nervous about upcoming apocalypses all day since his newest Jane and Cedric dream; so right now; he was a man on a mission with a hammer.

"Come on, let's go visit Spain." Piper said, hoping above the railing.

Malcolm

July 14th

He fiddled with Nyssa's machine and peeked inside the panels. He looked back at the blueprint and back again; a perfect match. Since Chiron's latest words he and Nyssa had been trying to break into the Roman's camp communication even more furiously than before.

"I don't get it. It's perfect." He said. "The wiring, the signals going through, the batteries are fully charged, put in the right spot, connected…"

"Exactly!" Nyssa said. "I don't get this and I hate it!" She kicked the nearest wall.

"Calm down, freaking out won't help."

"No, but it's very satisfying." She said.

"You know what; I can't stand you." Malcolm said.

"I can't stand you either." She said.

"You're incredibly, atrociously insufferable."

"And you use freaking long words none of the dyslexics know." Nyssa said.

"Want to bet, Nyss?" He asked.

She sighed. "I'll tell Jake to rally the counsellors. I'll get the children of Iris and Hermes on messages to try and reach the Roman camp. In the meantime; keep working on this."

"Since when do you give me orders?" Malcolm asked.

"Since you stopped giving me mine." Nyssa said firmly, before speeding off. _She_ was going to be the end of him.

Malcolm looked up at Chiron who was staring at the fire.

"Chiron are you okay?" Malcolm asked.

"I didn't feel the she-wolf in so long. Every now and then I'd wonder if she was dead. The only reason I knew she wasn't was when I remembered the might and pride of her legion during the Civil War, or when I saw a man or woman who did great things and bore the signs of her training. She was a good friend. And the first news I get from her is that she's hurt." He said.

Great. Lupa was hurt, Chiron was dying, the Doors of Death were open. How was Zeus doing? Did anybody have cancer?

"I'm sorry." Malcolm said.

"Lupa is strong; she'll make it. It's the fort I'm worried about." Chiron said. "One of their praetors is gone."

"Yeah, but, the other girl they had looked unbreakable." Malcolm asked, remembering how much he'd thought of his missing sister while looking at Reyna Bell. There was still no news from Annabeth, her father, or if she was even making her journey back towards the East.

"Everything is breakable, child." Chiron said.

Malcolm looked in the eyes.

"I know."


	50. XXII Percy

**Kay guys, so I suggest you go Google Image 'Malaga Spain'. It's beautiful, but don't forget the 'Spain' because then you'll get these weird, unrelated and/or innapropriate pics. This has been stubbornly refusing to post itself since, like, Friday night.**

**To whoever thought I posted twice a day: Twice a week at the most! Whoa, I don't write _that _fast!**

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><p>XXII<p>

Percy

July 14th

Percy had stayed around the United States for most of his life. He'd been to Canada that one time where it'd been mostly running from the meaner Canadians, and he might have passed on some Bahamas ocean territory or something in the Sea of Monsters, and then it all depended on how you saw New Rome; but this was really the only time he'd ever been sight-seeing places.

"Okay GPS, where are we?" Percy asked Jason. Jason shot him the wolf 'no matter how tough you think you are I'm tougher and I hate your humour' look. Percy didn't let it bother him. At first it'd scared him, but he was at the point of knowing Jason where Jason just couldn't scare him.

"We're in Southern Spain," Jason said. "If we'd have passed right through we'd have gotten to the Mediterranean."

"Fantastic." Piper said. "How about a city name?"

"Màlaga," Jason said. "It's one of the oldest cities in the world."

"History goes back to 2, 800 years, right?" Percy asked. Everybody looked at him crookedly. "What?"

"You're not the kind of idiot who knows this stuff." Frank said.

"Annabeth told me about it." Percy said. "There's a cathedral somewhere, and a Roman theatre was discovered…" Something in his chest cringed. She hadn't given him a random stat of architecture in such a long time… Or at least that was what it felt like.

"Well, if it's that old, then the monsters and gods are probably still anchored here, right?" Quinn said.

"Rain on the parade, much?" Hazel teased. She gave her a little elbowing, and Quinn smiled to herself.

"We could go see the old ruins. They go from Greek, to Phoenician –who were the city founders-, to Byzantine, to Roman." Quinn said.

"With our luck, there's a giant already there trying to destroy it," Frank muttered.

"Not out loud Frank," Percy said. "Keep your pessimistic thoughts to yourself. I say we go for it unless someone has a better idea."

It took about thirty seconds before everyone said 'food' at once.

They wandered around the city, and Percy tried to focus on what the others were saying or talking about; but he kept thinking back to how Annabeth would've loved it. That hurt. He'd been to so many architectural feats with her… And now he doubted they'd go anywhere again, or cooperate more than necessary. That felt wrong; just wrong.

They stopped at a place where they got something called _Tortilla Espanola_, which was a kind of omelette with onions; except the main ingredient was potatoesnot eggs. It was super good, and they would've gone for seconds if any of them had a better idea about how many euros they actually had in American dollars. Well, Quinn knew, but she couldn't seem to do the math due to fatigue, even when she was scribbling on a napkin.

Frank managed to push Piper into this Spanish Couture boutique, and she said she'd charmspeak him into walking into the road if he ever did anything like it again. Apparently her eyes were permanently scarred or something. She said that that went for Percy and Jason who were laughing their butts off as well.

She wasn't kidding, and next thing Percy knew he was that close to licking a brick wall, and getting a nasty look from the people around.

A local told them to go to some Museum of Glass and Crystal. General agreement forbade six demigods from walking in there. Especially their group of six demigods.

It was really the most relaxed moment ever. They were all glad not to be on the boat, and to be free in the world, so only Jason and Percy argued that once.

They ended up in the old town, with old fashioned, colourful buildings, with balconies on the sides, and terraces where people ate. The chatter of Spanish dominated anything else, but some tourists spoke English, French, Italian and something that sounded like German.

"This is great," Percy suddenly said.

"Since when are you into old cities?" Frank asked. "Not that I don't agree or anything, but…"

Percy bit his lip and looked down. He'd caught it off Annabeth. He wished they'd have come here together at some point. There was some super neat architecture in Spain that she'd have loved, and some beaches…

"I don't know, it just looks good," Percy said. "Plus the Romans were here, right? And the Greeks?"

"Yes," Jason said. "Except the Romans called it Hispania; which is why people from Spain are called Hispanic. Magala was one of the first places to fall during the final crisis."

"Thank you Wikipedia," Percy said. Jason shot him a look, but Percy was not letting the Google Earth jokes die down anytime soon.

"So why are there still Ancient buildings?" Hazel asked.

"Because nobody got around to destroying them," Jason said. "Even in their weakest days the Romans were feared. They came to power once, and they could come to power twice."

"You guys?" Piper joked. Frank shoved her, and Piper shoved him back.

"Oh look, there's a couture store!" Frank said.

"Frank Zhang don't you dare!" Piper said.

"Hey!" Hazel suddenly said.

They spun around to see a guy running off into the crowd, holding a handful of shiny little stones.

"He just took them from my pocket!" Hazel said. "I had to pick up stones as I walked, over and over, and he took them all!"

"It's his loss, isn't it? He'll get hurt." Jason said. He was a bit tight on 'no stealing' because that was one of the number one rules of the legion, even in the old days.

"This isn't the time for fair is fair and legion rules on theft!" Hazel said. "A handful of them could get him killed!" She panicked.

"Calm down, he's gone, there's nothing we can do." Frank told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She still panicked.

"I'll be right back, don't move!" She said.

"Hazel- you can't just…" -And she managed to weasel away in the crowd.

"Hazel!" Jason called after her. But she was out.

"Oh yes she can, apparently." Piper said.

"Ah man, why does she need to have a conscience?" Frank said, stretching his neck to try and see her.

"I'll go after her," Percy offered, "Stay put, we'll find you here."

He pushed through the crowd, stepped on peoples' feet and generally not making friends. He spotted Hazel weaselling through the crowd- small and stealthy and exactly fitting through spaces between people. She was doing fine.

"Hazel!" He yelled. Suddenly he heard a CRACK sound, and people gasped. He pushed through one last couple and saw the man face first on the ground, the cement bucked up. Hazel ran after him and he crawled into an alley where the world's smelliest garbage lived. It smelled like bad _tortilla Espagnola. _

Hazel was at his side, and she took a handful of rubies and gold and even a ring from his hand, and where he'd dropped it.

"Thief," she said drawing her spatha and whipping it through the air, at his throat. "You're lucky you didn't get anywhere with that." The man was muttering in Spanish, begging for forgiveness from what Jason heard.

"Hazel!" Percy said. He grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the pickpocket.

"I'm fine," she said.

"I know, I wasn't worried." Percy said. He looked at the man. "Careful who you pickpocket, buddy. Scram before I let her loose on you again."

The man nodded and babbled and sprinted off faster than Travis Stoll when Katie caught him by the collar for pranking a little kid.

He turned towards Hazel. "But still, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said. "Where are the others?"

"Back where you left from." Percy said. "Look, Haze, I know that a lot of this stuff is scary for you, but your gems aren't your responsibility. They pop up, you do your best –which we love you for-, and the rest comes."

Hazel bit her lip and looked down at her feet. "A lot of people got hurt. In New Orleans, Alaska… I don't want any more."

"You can't control everything. Especially the number of heart attacks you'll give Frank if you keep running off on us like that. Come on, before the others think I got lost finding you." Percy said.

They retraced their steps, sticking close so they wouldn't get separated (that'd be embarrassing). Suddenly police and firemen zoomed past them and they both looked at each other.

"Ten minutes tops," Hazel said, "and we miss something that requires emergency personnel."

They ran up to where the emergency vehicles stopped; they were at the exact same spot they'd left from- Percy recognised the sewer opening, the light post, the bakery… Speaking of the bakery, a small fire was burning there.

"This is it," Hazel said.

"Where are the others?" Percy said, spinning around to get a 360 view.

"Probably running from that," Hazel finally said, pointing at the inside of the pastry shop.


	51. XXIII Piper, Quinn, Jason

**Hola- I apologise for not uploading yesterday. I had to finish a story for something called The Writing Games on Fanpop (Letters to Simon- check it out. You'll all be so proud of me, I used _real _characters that I didn't take from someone else!) and that took nearly the whole day. Then I went to see Titanic with my friends :) We were _so freaking emotional _coming out of the movie, one of the saddest stories that's been told to me via book/movie. 3D well done, breath-taking effects.**

**Anyways, enjoy! Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!**

**Disclaimer: I own bupkis.**

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><p>XXIII<p>

Piper

July 14th

Percy had just slipped into the crowd of people. It didn't look like anything strange was going on. Quinn was in her head, letting the flow of peopl sway her back and forth; Jason just stood there with no look whatsoever even if Piper knew that he was already waiting for Percy and Hazel to come back, and Frank just stood there looking Styx-worried and swearing under his breath.

"Frank, stop it. Swearing won't help and the locals are looking at us weird." Piper said. "Percy will find her, they'll be fine." Frank played with the zipper of his jacket.

"I know, but this sucks."

"You can say that again," Jason said looking around. "Does anybody else think this day has been quiet considering Percy, Hazel and I are all big three?"

Piper pursed her lip.

"No. I… I hadn't thought about that…" Piper said. "But we don't have to think about it. Think positive, karmic, peaceful feng shui thoughts."

"Feng shui?" Quinn asked.

"I don't know," Piper said. Great; now_ she_ was freaked. Thanks a ton Jason.

"Where's Percy?" Jason muttered.

"They've only been gone a few minutes."

"Oh!" Quinn stumbled and fell onto Piper, who managed to catch her.

"Sorry," she whispered, blushing red up to the root of her hair.

"Watch where you're going, man," Jason called to the guy who'd just passed them. He froze and turned around. Piper cocked her head. She had never seen someone wear a trench coat, mittens, a floppy hat, cowboy boots, and a neck warmer all at once.

"What did you say?" The man said.

"Watch where you're going, you pushed my friend." Jason said. Quinn blushed.

"Before that. What did you call me?" He said. Jason didn't say anything, probably trying to process everything.

"Man?" Frank suggested.

"That does it!" Someone said. Piper spotted another man in the crowd. And another. And another. Oh, look at that, a fourth. All dressed the same, as if they'd raided the Salvation Army's donation boxes and settled with whatever they pulled out.

Her hand instinctively went towards Katoptris, who was tucked into her pants leg and making it impossible to walk.

Suddenly four trench coats dropped, floppy coats went flying, and Piper nearly had a heart attack.

Feet. That's right; they were being cornered by feet. The creatures had been stacked up and hiding under trench coats for a good reason. They were maybe two feet long feet each, and the ankle didn't end in a stub, but with a bald head accompanied by an ugly little angry face. Their ears stuck out from their heads and they scowled. Their noses were lumps, like gnomes in movies, and they had scarce teeth like babies.

Frank was the first to lose it and snigger. Quinn was biting her lips hard, probably because today was one of her bad and tired days.

"Okay, what?" Frank said.

"You laugh half-blood but you should be afraid!" The foot said.

Okay; keep the image of the foot in your mind, and imagine the deepest voice coming out of it. Piper lost it, and started laughing.

"Very afraid!" One of them sustained.

"Okay, I'm sorry, who are you guys?" Frank asked, trying to regain his serious.

"Monopods," Quinn said.

"Quinn, we've noticed they only have one foot…" Jason said.

"No, it's their literal name, not just a Latin word. Monopods. One-foots." Quinn said.

"Alas! Someone recognises our greatness!" One Monopod said.

"Alright," Jason said. "Well, it was nice meeting you guys. We have to… go…"

"Going will be useless!" The Monopod said.

"Now guys," Piper said stepping up. "Do you really think that would do anybody good? I mean, it'd waste our time, someone would get hurt, and it would traumatise the mortals."

Three very good points to anybody with a brain, but the Monopods seemed to have very little human bits and bobs in them; only the foot and the head.

"Poor mortals…" A Monopod said for a second.

"It would be good!" Another one said. His voice was nearly soprano and Piper nearly lost it again.

"Three of the seven half-bloods, and a daughter of Minerva! Gaia would reward us greatly!"

And just like that the sunny Spanish day, and the warmth of a million tourists in a small space faded away and chills soared up Piper's back.

"Gaia, eh?" Frank said.

"I heard an 'eh'," Piper said.

"Wow, not now Piper." Frank said shooting her a look that meant he wasn't in the mood for Canadian stereotypes. Well, he never was; which was why Piper had so much fun annoying the life out of him.

"Gaia will reward us! Half-bloods will recognise us and tremble!"

"Monopods will rule!"

"It's hard to rule when you're dead," Jason said calmly. And just like that they all drew weapons and caused a great deal of yelling amongst the crowd. Piper heard the Spanish word for 'police!' about twenty times.

They were all back to back, and the Monopods were waiting for a fight. Piper was looking at the Monopods. They looked weird, so freaking funny; but she knew they must have some kind of weapon. Maybe they breathed fire, or spat acid like that sea monster from the other day.

Suddenly Jason swung his sword in a wide arc behind her, and cut through one of the Monopods. He popped like a piñata and that was that. But the rest of them charged, and so did the demigods.

Piper stepped on one foot, jerked back her elbow and nailed one in the eye and thrust her dagger in the opposite way to chickabob a foot. That would sound so disgusting at a BBQ- thank the gods she was vegetarian.

She swung her dagger (technically the foot on there too) and hit another Monopod, using it to slide the one off her blade: a fancy little trick she'd learnt from watching Jason deal with giant ant swarms during Capture-the-Flag once.

She looked for a second at the others; but Frank seemed to be the only one who'd figured out what the Monopods had as their secret weapon since they had nothing else.

Jumping.

About thirty feet into the air at most, but they seemed to like jumping at faces just as much. Frank had turned into a kangaroo and he kicked them back just as bad.

Suddenly she got the breath knocked out of her and she fell on the sidewalk, Katoptris scatted away. Piper had to bite bate a bad word as what was presumably a foot rolled her onto her back.

"Well, well. Children of Venus always taste so… Sweet."

And then another secret weapon was revealed: fangs. Those three baby teeth Piper had seen now looked like shark teeth. Before Piper could do anything it bit down on her shoulder and she screamed before the idea of even shutting up crossed her mind.

Suddenly the Monopod went flying, and someone offered a hand. She took it and got pulled up in one swift tug.

"You good?" Jason asked.

"I just got bitten by a foot," Piper said.

"There are worst." Jason said. The sad part was that he was probably talking by experience. Piper saw a nick at his ankle.

"Took a chunk out of you?" Piper asked.

"It stings a bit, but whatever." Jason said. His foot somehow scooped up Katoptris and with a flick it flew at her. She caught the hilt.

"Show off." She said. But Jason was already surrounded by more and holding his ground.

Quinn's advantage seemed to be that she was small, thin, and agile. The feet flew at her but she ducked or twisted or _something. _It was quite impressive combined with the skilled _gladus_ swinging.

Katoptris made a wide arc that cut through three more feet but they were _everywhere. _Piper's shoulder wound stung like heck now.

"We need a better plan!" Jason called out. "We need to leave, there must be a nest or something nearby since they keep coming!"

"Frank," Quinn yelled from her bubble of fighting. "How much weight can you carry while in flight?"

"Well let's see," Frank said. "I've barely ever flown before, and I've never seen a dragon; so not much. You at the least."

"That's all that's needed!" Quinn said.

"Quinn, you got a plan?" Piper said, just as she realised how dumb of a question that was. Children of Wisdom always had a plan.

"Mmm-hmm!" She said. "You and Jason have to hold your ground for a while, give me… Ten minutes."

Ten minutes: that's the time they'd given Reyna at Camp Jupiter.

"Okay!" Jason said, sending a round house kick that knocked three jumping Monopods from the air.

With a squawk and a black bird; Quinn was lifted off the ground and flying. Piper didn't even _want_ to know what was up.

"Think she's got another bomb?" Jason asked, as he and Piper backed up closer to each other.

"I don't know; I don't think she brought one. Bombs are new to her; she didn't make them at Camp." Piper said.

"If I'm ever praetor again; I am giving her total rights to set off bombs wherever she wants to." Jason muttered under his breath, as more Monopods came out of the crowd. The mortal police was taking awfully long to get there, so did Percy and Hazel…

Piper clenched her jaw wondering if that'd make the pain go away, but apparently it didn't. Gods, were those things venomous? Venomous feet… Well with their luck, anything was possible.

"Hey!" Jason suddenly said. Piper spun around and saw a foot flying at her. Jason thrust his arm out to protect her, but Piper was just as quick to push it down because the only thing she processed was _stupid Jason Grace that is your sword arm you're putting up. _And then it flew at her face and she felt teeth sink in right under her eye, and at the top of her nose.

"OFF!" She yelled. And then it dropped down. Piper stepped on it, crushing its skull, and swung her sword blindly as spots danced across her eyes and her head lost about a million pounds worth of weight. She felt it hit a Monopod, then another.

"Piper- are you-"

"Keep fighting Jason Grace don't you dare!" Piper said as she swung her sword again. She made contact, but Katoptris' blade didn't smooth right across the Monopod. She pulled her sword out and she felt another bite in her wrist, the back of her arm, her thigh, and suddenly the whole world was black.

Quinn

"Quinn; I fully acknowledge that you're a genius, but what in Rome are you doing?" Frank asked. She was perched on the gutter of the building overlooking the fight –some pastry shop- and she was busy.

"Go back to the boat," Quinn said. "Tell them that we need reinforcements."

"Quinn, they need help down there…" Frank said looking down. Jason and Piper were getting swarmed.

"What would be better, a son of Mars or a warship?" Quinn asked him, as she found what she was looking for in her pocket. She didn't let Frank see it or else he'd haul her back to the ground or refuse to go get the Argo II. At this point, Quinn was pretty sure that Leo, Tyson and Annabeth should have it fixed. And if not, minor repairs could wait.

"Quinn, how are we supposed to fit a warship in..?"

"Frank you just admitted that I was a genius- so go!" Quinn said. She needed him out of here before she could do anything. He sighed and his anatomy, shapes, traits and skin melted into those of a vulture -sacred bird of Mars, Quinn noted- and flew away.

Quinn quickly climbed the rooftop further up, careful not to fall. She tried to be as precise and stable as in the legion's army runs.

She finally got to the chimney of the building. It was the only way to get in the building, the door had been blocked by the Monopods. She heard Jason and Piper yelling to each other and she knew she had no more time to lose.

"My name is Quinn Hunter," she whispered before slashing her wrist with the knife. It hurt, but she kept quiet and let the droplets race down the chimney, hoping this would work. She squeezed the cut for more and ignored the sting.

Jason

Things had looked bad many times aboard the Argo II with the near-daily attacks of sea monsters and such, but this was looking pretty bad.

He was holding on to Piper with one hand, and fighting a million foot-heads with the other. Piper had taken it bad; she should've let him take it to the arm, it was easier to shake them off your arm than your face, thank the gods she could charmspeak. Besides, they hadn't tasted his blood yet; they weren't as hungry for it.

Suddenly they all froze and looked at the pastry shop.

"Minerva!" They awed. Suddenly they completely forgot about Jason and Piper and ran inside yelling something in Ancient Greek; something that Jason didn't catch.

A few of them charged through the glass door, which shattered into a million pieces, covering loaves of bread and batched of pastries that had looked really good right until then.

They all immediately started going for the bread oven, and they tried to squeeze themselves in it. Jason had no idea what was going on, but he was holding a certain child of wisdom responsible right now.

"We will bring Gaia's pawn to her!" A Monopod shouted. They all screamed at the same time, some sort of war chant, and suddenly there was an explosion that threw Jason to the ground. He tried to cover Piper's face and chest to prevent damage, and a few of the people who hadn't run off screamed and fell to the ground as well. A single toe that belonged to Talos soared into the street.

Definitely Quinn.

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><p><span>Anonymous reviews<span>

s- two chapters a week! Whoa there, I'm not superhuman!

Bigfan- Maybe it does… you'll see. Also, I don't like Piper and Jason or Piper and Leo (OH NOES!) so I came up with someone better for Piper. Maybe you're going down the same road.¸

Trivia101- Umm, actually, I've been back on Fanpop for a while now.

Hello- I will see… I've actually dreamed something up, but I'm not sure. Either way don't worry, I didn't forget her.


	52. XXIV Leo, Frank, Jason, Percy

**Enjoy folks!**

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><p> XXIV<p>

Leo

July 14th

"In. Your. Face!" Leo said. "Nobody messes with my boat so bad I can't fix it! Thanks a ton, Annabeth and Tyson."

"No problem Leo," she said whipping her hands on a towel. It used to be white, but the oil on all their hands turned it black.

"Serious repairs," Tyson said. "Boat no break like that again. Bad."

"Yeah…" Leo said. "If we're flying over someplace and then POOF again… And if we can't land it…" He bit his lip. His friends were depending on this boat to work. That was his big part to play according to Hera. He could _not_ blow that.

"I guess we could send a message to the others." He said to change the subject.

"My drachmas are above deck," Annabeth said. "In my jacket, it should be near the mast. I'll go turn the shower on and try to mist the place up."

Leo followed what she said and replayed some of the building tricks he'd learnt during that.

In the Argo II's maze of pipes and compartments it was good to prop yourself in a tight spot so you wouldn't slip and drop what you were doing, it was always good to keep three sizes of bolts in your pockets _just_ so that you wouldn't have to unstuck yourself from whatever confined space you were in to go get the right one (wisdom of Leo, coming in three seconds too late as per usual)…

Then he saw a vulture flying at them. It landed on the ship as Leo started having sneaking suspicions that it was Frank Zhang, and sure enough it turned into the son of Mars.

"Yo, we fixed the boat." Leo said.

"Good: we need backup." Frank said. His eyes were wide like his senses were particularly awake.

"You got it Zhang," Leo said. "Hey Annabeth, forget the IM!" He called down the stairs. She popped back up.

"I heard Frank, where are the rest?"

"Garcia street," Frank said. "I think. Whatever it's called."

"Leo head there and we'll just follow the emergency vehicles," Annabeth said. "Fail-proof plan to find any demigod, particularly Seaweed Brain." Leo muttered something about how that was why they should still be together, Annabeth hit him.

"Just take off, repair boy." Annabeth said, using the nickname most of the girls had adopted for Valdez.

"Alright, alright! Pushy. And I am _way_ more than the repair boy."

"Yeah, yeah, you're the only one who can fly a ship, so _do it!" _Frank said.

Frank

Leo pulled on a lever; hit a piston, wacked the GPS and they were off. Or at least that's what it looked like to Frank, despite Leo's insistence that flying the Argo II was complicated and reserved for the intellectually superior.

They flew over Málaga and the view was great, but Frank was just mainly worried about how the others were doing. He wondered if anybody had gotten hurt really badly.

They were only a few meters over the roof line, when they spotted Quinn, still near the chimney.

"QUINN!" Annabeth yelled down. Her sister looked up and Frank saw her shoulders relax in relief.

"Frank, throw her that rope." Annabeth said.

"What rope- oh," he said finding it. He tossed it overboard, holding the other end and Quinn immediately started climbing up.

"She's only using one arm," Frank noticed.

"She's hurt!" Annabeth said with the worried-big-sister red alert coming on.

"She was fine when I left!" Frank said. He pulled on the rope and helped Quinn climb overboard.

"You okay?"

"Yes- it's just my wrist, no big problem. Jason and Piper-"

"Are right here," someone said. They turned around and watched Jason slowly lower Piper on the deck. She was bleeding from about five places, but the worst was her face.

"Oh gods," Quinn breathed.

"Oh, by the way, we need to get out of here." Jason said.

"We noticed bro." Leo said.

"No, I mean, we really have to get out of here. I think the killer feet found friends."

Leo scoffed. "What, the hands of doom? The elbows of fury? Or maybe the abdomens of abomination."

"No, the griffins." Annabeth said.

"Oh hang on tight, kiddies! And someone hold onto Piper." Leo said, taking the steering wheel in a way that told Frank that he was serious about the holding on bit.

Jason

"Quinn, try to take care of Piper, and bandage your own wrist," he said. "Frank, you're going to take a ballista; Annabeth, you too; I'll take the other. Aim for the griffons, and try to harm most of them, don't focus on one kill. If their pack is hurt they'll go; they've got the sense of fidelity in a pack just like wolves. Leo, drive."

"You got it," Leo said. Everyone moved swiftly, and Jason was thankful. He had no real authority on this ship, no more than anyone; but sometimes he'd blurt a plan of action during a crisis moment. When there was no other real plan, he was always thankful they were going with something. Same when Percy did the same, or Annabeth, or anybody.

Annabeth had the wicked aim of someone who'd shot things out of the sky before. Jason didn't think the ballista he was helping her handle missed a shot. Frank had the best aim of the Argo II and it apparently got a boost judging by the number of sleek black and winged panthers running out of the sky.

"Leo, is the boat holding up?" Jason asked without letting go of his position. Annabeth let another shot soar. Jason was seeing newspaper headlines. Mysterious Projectiles Destroy Roofs Across Cities- whatever that was in Spanish.

"What kind of question is that? My baby is A-Okay." Leo said.

"Quinn, how's your wrist?"

"Fine."

"And Piper?"

"I-I'm working on-on –umm- it," she stuttered. "On her."

Jason took that as a 'not that well but I'll keep trying'.

Frank took another griffin down and suddenly what was left of the pack retreated, hissing at them.

"Leo, you can slow down," Annabeth said. Leo stopped the fancy flying tricks.

"Dudes, I should just join the air force," Leo said. "I'm getting good at this."

"Yes amazing," Frank said. "Think you could swoop down now? Percy and Hazel, three o'clock."

Percy

"Okay, so I know monsters come in all shapes and sizes, but really?" Hazel said looking through remnants of the pastry shop. Oddly enough the door was still there, and the 'closed' side was flipped to show, or at least that's what he _thought_ 'cerrado' meant. At least he hoped so; because if not, the baker had just been swallowed by feet. What a horrible death.

What Percy guessed was the Spanish SWAT team were barrelling in and trying to rip them away from each other and away from the oven. Percy suddenly got really scared that one of theirs was lying in that oven.

"There's blood on the ground," Hazel said pointing to the pavement.

"Oh yeah, they were here." Percy said wondering whose it was. Frank? Jason? Piper? Quinn?

"So why did they go?" Hazel asked.

"My guess is they ran." Percy said. "From that."

"We should run too." Hazel suggested.

"They're not noticing us. We're big three." Percy said. "Why aren't they noticing us?"

"Why don't you ask them?" Hazel suggested. Suddenly a few at the back froze and looked at them.

"More pawn of Gaia!" He cheered. Percy froze in shock when he heard the soprano come out, but he just ran because he realised that _he_ was 'pawn of Gaia'. The feet stampeded towards him, swamping over the police officer standing in their mists on their way out. That was too big a crowd to consider standing up to without the curse of Achilles, especially while he had Hazel with him. If she got hurt Frank would not only kill him, but make it hurt. 

He and Hazel charged through the circle that the police was making. They got some Spanish yelled at them, but they ignored it and charged.

This was the oddest thing that had ever happened to him, or at least a top ten. 'Chased by feet' ranked up there with 'being switched to a Roman camp' and 'formalities with poodles'; hands down.

He and Hazel were running like Hades. He looked over his shoulder and saw how fast they went. They could leap, and their running did. It was a flash mob of body parts; and Percy saw them leaping high and far; sort-of like popcorn that time he hadn't put a lid over the pan.

"Look!" Hazel said pointing up. Percy looked up hoping he wouldn't clothesline or something. "It's the boat!"

Someone onboard seemed to spot them too because it lowered down and a rope was thrown down for someone to catch onto.

"Hazel- go!" Percy said.

"What? Where are you going to go? Why?"

"Because it'll be too heavy and too slow if both of us go and the feet monsters will catch up, because those things jump!" Percy said. "I can keep running!"

Hazel didn't argue with him (sometimes Roman habits like obedience got really handy), grabbed onto the rope and she was immediately pulled up. Percy kept running, zigzagging through streets and people that mostly shouted and jumped when they saw him and his load of feet coming.

He shifted into an alley, and the good news was that most of them got stuck on the way in.

Percy ran out of the other end, and suddenly somebody else was running right alongside him, muttering words he could just _tell_ were swearing. Plus she was running super-fast, like; run for your life fast. He looked at her quickly; army jacket, black yoga pants, hiking shoes, and gloves with the fingers cut off. He looked behind her and saw a hellhound that was barking about a million decibels loud. All of these monsters…

"Need a way out?" He asked her. She looked up at him; with warm brown eyes.

"_Ay, dios__mio_ - what was your first clue?" She said with a thick and cultured Spanish accent. Suddenly the rope from the Argo II dangled down, and Percy had no choice but to go up two at a time. The half-bloods on board wouldn't recognise her, and she'd be caught up with. He grabbed onto the rope with one hand.

"Come on," he said holding out his hand. She grabbed it without hesitation and they were pulled up. They dangled over Málaga, and the girl had a mix of more swearing and holding her breath.

"Percy you way a ton- what the heck?" Frank yelled from above. Hazel leaned over the railing.

"Umm…" She said. "Percy's not… alone?"

"What, more Monopods?" He heard Jason asked panicky.

"Nope." Hazel said. They were at the railing now.

"Go," Percy said. The girl grabbed the edge of the boat and Percy let go of her hand to grab it too, and they were both helped aboard.

Percy crashed on the deck and leaned against the wall. Oh heck with that… Feet were _fast_. He meant… Hard to outrun.._. _No, there was just no way to make that statement sound intelligent.

"Percy, who's this?" Annabeth asked nudging towards the girl. The look in her eye brought him back to when they were twelve and she hated every single atom or molecule or w_hatever_ in his body. It kind of really hurt after spending all those moments, fights and years with her.

"Umm, I don't know. I was running for my life, she was running for her life, it just felt right to haul her onboard." Percy said.

"Life?" The girl said. "Umm, more like running from the police."

"What? What are you talking back, there was a hellhound." Percy said.

"I didn't notice." The girl shrugged. Percy got a better look at her; she was skinny like she hadn't eaten in a while, and she had dark hair pulled up in a ponytail, greasy as it was. Her clothes were dirty, and so was she in general. Percy had seen enough demigods coming in to camp, and he'd seen his reflection when he got to Camp Jupiter; she'd been homeless.

"I'm Jason, that's Percy, she's Annabeth." Jason said so he wouldn't overwhelm her with all the names and faces just yet.

"What's your name?" Annabeth asked.

"Giozetta Esposito, but if you call me that you're going to suffer. The health conscient people call me Josie." She said. "Now what the hell's a hellhound?"

"Smooth, Percy, smooth." Annabeth said shooting him a look. Percy scowled even if part of him tore.

"Shut up Annabeth, she could've been a demigod." Percy defended.

"Demigod?" Josie said, stiffening.

"Yes," Annabeth said. Oh, _now_ she was all nice. "Have you heard the word before? Do you know what it means?"

"I've been called that before." Josie said nonchalantly. "Are you telling me that's a real thing? Flip, yo, that's pretty intense." She said taking it like it was cool.

"You better believe it," Leo said. "We have a flying boat, don't we?"

"Who called you that? A teacher? A monsters?" Annabeth asked.

"No, it was my mother," Josie said, getting up and stretching towards the side, her eyes scanning the boat.

"She told you?" Annabeth said. "That's… That's not safe."

"Well, when she was kicking me out of the house, I doubt that my safety was one of her concerns." Josie said.

There was an all-around shocked silence as Josie looked them all over. There was something in her eyes that was waiting for a reply, and trying to hide something she'd been hiding forever.

"Josie, what do you mean 'kicked out'?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh, so now you want my life story?" Josie asked, crossing her arms. "I don't even know you freaks. All I know is that your boat flies, which is so wrong on so many levels."

"If you don't like it, we could throw you over." She suggested.

"Annabeth!" Percy snapped. Annabeth shot him the look that meant there was work in progress and that he who interrupted suffered for it.

"You make a strong case Blondie," Josie said.

"Annabeth," she said.

"In ten seconds I'll be calling you Hazel or whatever, so sticking to Blondie does both of us a favour," Josie said. Percy cocked his head. When had they told her about Hazel?

"Anyways, so before my life story, can I maybe get a talk though this 'demigod' nonsense?"

And so Jason and Annabeth went through the story since they'd done this more often than anybody else, and Percy wasn't really in the mood to do anything but glare at Annabeth and pass the question through his head _again_ about what the Hades he'd done wrong to screw it up that bad. Everyone looked bored. Percy noticed Frank, Hazel and Leo engaged in a rock-paper-scissors tournament behind Jason and Annabeth's backs. He was about to try and get in, but Josie started talking again.

"I see." She said, crossing her arm across her chest and propping her chin on her fist. "Are you extreme psychotic fans of some book I haven't heard about?"

"No. We're not the biggest fans of our lives either." Frank said, hiding scissors behind his back.

"Alright, just thought I'd check. So, life story, eh? Alright. My mother had me; my dad was never around, average sob story. It got a bit trickier… last fall I think was when the apocalypse took a step forth."

"Shoot me now." Percy muttered. If there was any other half-blood Gaia was messing with out there…

"The only thing she really knew about my dad was his name. He traveled a lot; and one day he just didn't come back to Málaga. That was the day she found out I was going to show up, conveniently enough. But you know, Mama sucked it up, I was born, she worked two jobs, it was okay." Josie shrugged. "Then I had this insane teacher who'd apparently filed to teach Mythology but got stuck with English instead. Anyways, our assignments all spun around mythology, one way or another. Than on day my Mama was helping me study and she recognised a name from the paper and freaked out. She even called a university. Now tell me, what on the face of the earth tried to bite her face off." She asked nudging her head towards Piper. "Was it him? Because I don't trust him." She said pointing towards Frank.

"I am fully trustable!" Frank protested.

"They were feet," Jason said. "Monopods if you want the real name."

"Fascinating. So tell me, when is this nut-boat landing next? How fast do you guys run? Do I have any chance of outrunning you guys? Or are you all demigods too? Half Greco-Roman -perhaps Egyptian- god, invincible and dashing, super-human from whom peasants such as _mí_ have no chance of survival or escape?"

"Josie, we are all demigods." Jason said. "Annabeth and Quinn over there are sisters, even."

"Ah; so Blondie and Blondie-tiny. I get it." Josie said. Quinn blushed fiercely.

"Stop it," Hazel said defensively. "Stop being sarcastic, just accept."

Percy wished Piper could just wake up, wipe the blood off her face and charmspeak Josie into belief because this was getting old to him.

"Accept what, that you're all lunatics?" Between the new kid's sarcasm, Annabeth's attitude towards him, and the general smell of dirty feet that hung around the air; Percy had enough and he slammed his foot on the deck. Immediately a water bottle flew up into the air, and the top popped like champagne. The water spun around like a halo above his fingers and following their movements for a bit, before dousing Jason because it felt right.

"See that, Josie? My dad's the sea god." Percy said.

"Yes; and my dad's the sun god. See, that's why the sun's shinning." She said sarcastically.

"It actually could be," Frank said. "Who did your mom say he was?"

"I don't know, I never believed her. Something like Marco Paulo."

"Apollo, maybe?" Annabeth suggested.

"That," Josie nodded, "whatever Apollo's supposed to be, real or not real." Her way of saying it was different, the 'o' sounded different, more Spanish.

Jason rolled up his sleeve to show his tattoo.

"I've been serving the legion for twelve years. The legion operates with descendants of gods, Josie. Don't you tell me that isn't real."

"I'm not saying it isn't real I'm just saying… Okay, you got me, this is _so_ It's not real; there are scientific explanations and et cetera to explain the sun, not Marco Paulo- sorry,_ Apollo…_"

For about an hour, Jason and Annabeth tried drilling it into Josie's head. Once Annabeth left to go check on Piper -who Quinn had told them to move out of the sun, thus downstairs- Percy went and showed her stunts with water. Jason summoned electricity on his fingertips and made the wind blow. They showed the kid Riptide and Jason's gladus, Percy's Camp Half-Blood necklace…

It took a few hours and Josie seemed just as sick of being talked to as they were sick of talking to her. She was sitting crookedly, leaned back against the railing, her knees propped up.

"Keep talking all you want, chaps. You're just giving me more time to figure out how to establish contact with the _casa de locos _and escape_." _She said.

Jason took his gladus and stabbed it in the boat next to her, making her jolt.

"My baby!" Leo yelled.

"Jason!" Hazel reproached. Jason didn't listen and Percy was confused, but he put his hand on Riptide just in case.

"Look Josie, sit up straight, pay attention." Jason said. "I don't know if you're Greek or Roman- but you're a demigod, so one way or another, you're going to have to learn some respect."

"To you?" Josie asked, like the idea was funny to her.

"If you're Roman, yes. If not, then acting decent with human beings is good practise for when you have to talk to gods." Jason said. He stared her down wolf-style, but Josie was pretty good at meeting his glare with one of her own.

But she pulled her legs up closer to her and straightened her back.

"Thank you." He said. "We've given you proof, explanations and such. You're just going to have to believe us and tell us where you're from because on that boat- that seems to be one of the most important things."

Josie put her head in her hands and muttered something in Spanish to herself. "The second I believe like my mother did is the second I accept the fact that I'm a freak and that I was thrown out for a reason, and that I've been starving and freezing and pretending I'm not homeless for a good reason."

Percy froze. That was why. That was why he'd found her on the streets, starved and dirty and running from police. She was homeless. Gods, he couldn't help but think back to Annabeth, Thalia and Luke. Even himself for a while- during that trek from the Wolf House to San Francisco and Camp Jupiter… He wouldn't wish that kind of hardship on anyone as a lifestyle.

"Josie, don't worry." Annabeth said. Percy noticed she was a bit more pale. He was going to go hug her but he caught himself. They weren't a couple anymore, he had to drill that in his mind.

"Parents have a harder time coping with the god idea, it happens."

"Easy for you to say, Blondie! Your parents are all pretty much great! Pocahontas underdeck's dad's been protecting her from the Hollywood craze, your mom married a pig for your protection, I don't even know where to _start_ about your mothers, your dad gave up going to university for you, your mom cared in the very end, and your dad flew a freaking _bi-plane_ into battle to save you and your friends!" Josie said pointing to Percy, Leo, Frank, Quinn, Hazel and Annabeth in respective order. "My mom? None of that; absolutely none of that, she hated me, and I hate her."

They stayed quiet and looked at each other for a bit. Annabeth was the one to speak up.

"Umm, Josie? How do you know all that? Because… We never told you."


	53. XXVI Frank, Piper

**Okay, so friendly reminder of what Hera told Annabeth about The Seventh Prophecy Child:**

"So who's number seven?" Annabeth asked. Hera pursed her lips.

"She will come when it's her time. That's the only occasion where you can expect anything from her. She'll seem unlikely, but it's her. Don't doubt what she can do, even if it's unobvious." Hera warned.

**If uncooperative and unlikely sounds like Josie to you, there goes that.**

**Also: a reminder to the Anonymous reviewers that if the review wasn't on the last chapter, I'll most likely not respond. Not to be mean or anything, but I'm human and flawed and messed up. **

**Also: I'm sorry I mispelled some Spanish word. I'm relying on various translating sources on the Internet for Josie's Spanish, so if anybody can help me out I'd apprecite it. And the lack of accents comes from the fact that my computer is stubbornly and incurably anglophone. When I write in French the keyboard'll switch and I'll have to do the command two-three times before the keyboard switches back to the accents/punctuations that I need. Sometimes it just takes it out and switches words to English, like 'banane' to 'banana'. I know what it's like to have people screw up the accents in your language, I'm French Canadian. So to the reader who pointed that mistake: I'm sorry, and I did have the accents in the original draft. I'll fight with my computer harder next time. **

* * *

><p>XXVI<p>

Frank

July 14th

Josie stayed silent for ten seconds or so and Leo thought they might need to start taking notes or something, because that seemed to be a record.

"What the hell do you mean you never told me any of that?"

"We never told you about any of our family; much less the mortal half." Annabeth said examining Josie.

"But… But…" Josie cocked her head. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, we're sure."

"I don't believe you." Josie said.

"_Chica, _you're about seven witnesses to one," Leo said. "Besides, I don't talk about my mom to people."

"You speak Spanish?" Josie said.

"_Sí, es mi lengua de nacimiento__." _He said. Josie replied in quick Spanish and Leo launched himself into an explanation of some kind, using his hand a lot- during which it actually started to rain, which chased everyone but Tyson and Ella who wanted to drive under deck.

At the end of Leo's explanation, she nodded and looked over them.

"I still think you're crazy, but he tells me the flying boat has a sound system." Josie said. "So I'm in for the time being."

"And w-what do you think the-the time being is, exactly?" Quinn asked. Her stutter had kicked back in when faced with this new person. Josie was kind-of scary, Frank admitted. And she talked way too fast for Quinn to match-up to anyways.

"Until we land and I can test my theory that demigods are like policemen, and can be outran," Josie said.

"You try that. Follow me, I'll find you a spare set of clothes." Annabeth said. "You're about Piper's size."

"Who's Piper?"

"The unconscient one," Annabeth said taking another look over her shoulder.

"I'm just going to call her Pocahontas. Or Nosebleed. I haven't decided yet." Josie said.

"She's going to hurt you," Jason warned. "Plus it's more of an under-the-eye-near-the-nose injury, if you want to be specific." Josie didn't look like that made a difference in her judgement, and she followed Annabeth to the bottom engine room where they also kept storage of extra supplies.

"Yeah, speaking of that," Percy spoke up (now that Annabeth was gone, Frank noticed). "What the heck was _that _about? The monsters?"

"Monopods," Quinn said, absent mindedly tugging on the bandage at her wrist. "It's Latin for one-foots, but they were part of mythology. More of Medieval books and stories and all that, but they were from legends in the Roman Empire. I imagine it's why they didn't like to be referred to as 'men' and they got so insulted when I was the only one to know them."

Frank suddenly probably turned really red. "Yeah, about that, I'm sorry I laughed at them. But I mean they're feet with heads. That sort-of got me by surprise."

"Plus the soprano." Percy said. Frank nodded but didn't laugh this time.

"That doesn't matter," Jason said. He was looking at Quinn. "How did you attract them into the bakery?"

Quinn suddenly blushed really red and played with her hands like she was about to say something important. Swear words coursed through Frank's mind because usually when Quinn had something important to say, it didn't mean anything good for the rest of them.

"I… Well, I've b-been working on an i- and idea." She said, twisting her hands.

"Okay," Jason said. "What is it?"

"Well…" Quinn ran her tongue across her lips. "You know how Gaia's been plaguing everyone on board with dreams?"

Save her because she never slept.

"Yes," everyone said at once probably thinking about their own dreams. Quinn took a deep breath.

"Well, I… I think she's been p-plaguing me too, just not with the same thing."

There was a shocked silence and Hazel broke it. "The voices."

Quinn balanced herself from one foot to another.

"I know a lot of things are up to chance, but I really can't determine why I'm the one who hears the voices, and nobody else. They're in my head, after all, and that would take more godly power than dreams, so to send them every night, and I'm not at a close distant to any god's known residence, except for maybe Poseidon but I doubt it's any sea god… It would take someone as strong as Gaia. I- I'm still not sure, but… Well, I took the chance. I dropped some blood in the chimney to see if it would lure them, and it did."

"And then the Monopods freaked out and called you pawn of Gaia." Percy remembered. Quinn nodded, looking troubled. "Welcome to the club."

"I don't know what they meant. I'm a legionnaire, not a rogue half-blood. And what's more I'm loyal to the legion like it was before the seize- to Jason and Reyna's legion or Percy and Reyna, I don't quite know. I'm not going to run away and join Gaia. The voices _will not _wear me down." She said. Frank wasn't so sure. Physically, they did. And mentally… Quinn's mentality was the strongest thing about her, but eventually she'd crack. Everyone cracked.

"No, they won't." Hazel said putting an arm around Quinn. "If they're trying to wear _you _down, they picked the wrong demigoddess." Quinn nodded obviously reassured a bit and cocked her head so it fell on Hazel's shoulder, probably thinking. When had they become so close?

"Quinn, how's Piper?" Frank asked, since she was as close to a doctor as they had considering Annabeth was busy with her and Jason's legionnaire medic skills didn't match the kind of knowledge Quinn had.

"Breathing, with a good pulse, and clear airways," Quinn said. "I don't know exactly how strong Monopod venom is; but I do know that it won't kill her. The biggest problem for now is infection in the injured eye."

"Did it actually get her eye?" Frank asked suddenly double worried. Man, if Piper went blind, not only would she take that super badly…

"I'm not sure," Quinn said. "Her eyelid was only a bit scarred, and not deeply enough. But there'll be a mark."

"Mars Almighty, she should've let me take the damn hit," Jason said.

"It's not your fault, man." Leo said. "Piper just happens to be really protective for people she cares about."

"You guys better be talking nice about me," came a mumble. Frank knelt next to Piper and offered a hand for her to turn onto her back,

"Oh thanks, that feels better. Gods, what happened?" Piper said.

"You were scarred by feet," Frank said seriously. And everyone started laughing again.

Piper

She only half understood the whole feet story, partially because of the pain in the back of her head, partially because the thinking corner of her brain was thinking about something else. A dream she'd had that's really stuck with her.

It was _him _again. Yeah; the tall soccer player with the intense eyes. She kept seeing him. Over and over, and over, and over… It wasn't the least pleasant dream Piper had ever had –then again, dreams about teeth extraction would be okay after nearly a month of seeing her dad tied to a burning stake. But it was definitely a frustrating one. Why did it keep coming to her, who was this guy, was he a demigod?

She saw him a lot, but usually he wasn't doing anything that extraordinary. She saw him playing soccer a lot, sometimes he was just walking alone in a forest and looking at the trees and birds around him with those concentrated brown eyes, as if he was looking for something. The best she'd figured out was that he never spoke English, Latin, or Greek. What she'd mistaken for English was actually another language, with more and different-sounding vowels.

Today he was lying on a sleeping bag, surrounded by tent walls. Piper was sitting at the other end of the tent cross-legged, on somebody else's sleeping bag. He was fidgeting with something, twirling it around his fingers. Piper squinted and saw a ring. She could make out a complex ring made like four thin interlocked gold bands.

He sighed and put it down in a bag at the foot of his bed, looking at the spot where it'd disappeared into some more. Then he said something out loud, and the words engraved themselves in Piper's mind, and she made sure to never forget them.

Suddenly there was the sound of a zipper and the flap of the tent opened. A head peaked in, and Piper recognised the girl; the only person other than him she seemed to see. Dani was her name.

She called something out to him in a melodious language a bit like French. Piper didn't know the language, but it was clearly a taunt. He made a face and swung his pillow at her. She swerved and laughed, before calling him out. He cast one last look at the bag where he'd cast the ring, and he followed her out.

Frank was looking at her crooked again, like he was about to guess that she had something on her mind, so she dragged herself back to the present and her reality.

"So, your name's Josie?" Piper asked. The new girl was chilling under deck with she, Frank and Annabeth, since she'd been carried down to her sleeping bag where she was more than happy to slump.

Annabeth had given her some food since apparently she'd been homeless. Piper could believe it; just how skin-and-bones and dirty she was.

"The one and only, thank god for you." She said. She had a rich Spanish accent that sounded musical and fun to the ear.

"I get that a lot," Piper said. "I'm Piper."

"So I was told," Josie said, eating sandwich crusts. "So what's your freak sob story?"

"No sob story," Piper promised. "I've actually lived nice and cozy for most of my life. After my dad became famous and all that, I was even a bit too out of there to figure it out."

"Your dad's famous? Ten bucks I never heard of him." Josie said, downing a glass. Annabeth bit her lip and Frank snickered.

"Tristan McLean," Piper said. Josie blinked.

"Never heard of him," she said.

"That makes one," Piper smiled. Secretly, she was _glad _Josie had never heard of Dad, because if she had to deal with a thirteen year old freaking Tristan McLean fan girl on this ship…

"Never was one for movies, I can't seem to sit down long enough, and they bore me. Or people always tell me to shut up with the colour commentating, but really I don't see why my rights of free speech are denied to satisfy those of a fictional character."

"That's the ADHD," Annabeth explained.

"Let me guess, that's caused by magic unicorns and the gas they release in the air when they've eaten too many gummy bears." Josie said. Frank snickered again.

"Battle field reflexes." Piper said.

"How very useful." Josie said. "Demigods seem to be awfully flawed; there aren't that many mythological battlefields in the twenty first century. What the _diablò_ do these instincts help you with?"

"We're heading to one," Frank said.

"And we don't have to fight on battlefields," Annabeth said. "You saw Percy; we get attacked on the streets and in buildings."

"You like Percy don't you?" Josie blurted. Annabeth's eyebrows narrowed.

"No, I don't." She said sharply.

"Sure you do," Josie said. "Josie sees right through you, you transparent little demigod with battlefield reflexes."

"Josie, I don't." Annabeth said, getting up. "I'm going to go check on Quinn."

"Why the heckdoes Quinn need checking up on? She was playing cards with Hazel ten seconds ago, surrounded by _mucho _experienced demigod warriors and laughing at one of the mini-Leo-man's jokes." Josie said. "You're being a little evasive here, just a smidge obvious."

Annabeth scowled and left anyways. Josie turned to them.

"She likes him, doesn't she?"

"They had a thing before…" Frank said. "Then it just… Talk to Piper, _she's_ the daughter of Aphrodite."

"Aphro-who now?"

"Aphrodite," Piper said. "Goddess of love and beauty."

"Well that opens horizons other than Nosebleed and Pocahontas." Josie said.

"Do you ever shut up?" Piper, who'd been called 'Pocahontas' in previous times and hadn't enjoyed it, said.

"No Bella," Josie said. "I have a strict policy against it. And I don't need to _know_ anything about Percy and Annabeth. They still like each other."

"Josie, how do you know that?"

"It's simple, it's like written on their foreheads." Josie said.

"Not really when it comes to Annabeth," Frank said.

"Well it's not my fault you don't know and I can tell." She said sliding off the chair. "Hey, does anybody know where a girl gets music around here?"

"Music?" Piper asked.

"Forget it," Josie said. She stretched and Piper saw how flexible she was for a second that she thought of cheerleaders and gymnastics and hip-hop troops at school. "So what now?"

"You start going back and forth on deck and try to amuse yourself." Piper said. She blinked in shock. That'd nearly been as blunt as Josie was.

"Well that's fantastic," Josie said. "Don't you save the world or something?"

"Not yet."

"So what do you do in between?"

"Well that depends, Percy and Jason like to fight, and Ella, Quinn and Annabeth read a lot…"

"Well you are all charming people," Josie said.

"Just go hang out above deck and try not to tick off anybody." Piper said. "I'm tired."

"I can do at least half of those things," Josie said before wandering off.

"She's a piece of work," Piper said once Josie disappeared.

"I have a feeling she's going to make things interesting." Frank said. "Did you hear her above deck?"

"No, funny thing being unconscient is." Frank made a face at her.

"She just seemed to know about all our mortal parents." He said. "It was the weirdest things. And Annabeth asked how she knew and she had no idea, like it was just programmed in her head, or written on our foreheads…"

"Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve…" Piper said.

"And ten seconds ago she knew about Percy and Annabeth…" Frank said. "I don't know, but there's something about her."

"Pretty sure that there's something about all of us, Frank." Piper said.

"Thank you, Lieutenant _Duh." _

"I thought I was Captain Duh," Piper said.

"Percy dethroned you this morning while he, Hazel and I were playing Uno." Frank said. "Like, he became Emperor of Duh."

"Percy was running across freaking Spain, picked one girl up and out of all of them it was a demigod. I'm pretty sure that _can't _be a coincidence." Piper said, not even wanting to _know_ what'd happened. So many things could happen during a game of Uno. "Who's her godly parent?"

"She's unclaimed."

"Greek or Roman?" Piper asked.

"No idea," Frank said. "Usually it's just assumed by which camp you pop up at."

Piper just melted deeper into her sleeping bag, half thinking about Josie, half thinking about the mystery boy. The thoughts jumbled up her head and Frank's outline became a big spot of fuzz.

"Piper, are you getting drowsy again?" He asked.

"No," she lied.

"Yes you are," he said. "Do you want me to find someone who has a clue about First Aid or..?"

"Nope, it's all good." Piper said as her vision blurred at random. And then it blurred up so bad a black splotch seemed to eat up the rest of the world and she passed out.


	54. XXVII Piper

**I forgot my disclaimer:**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO.**

* * *

><p>XXVII<p>

Piper

July 16th

She had to roll her shoulder every once and a while to keep the circulation going, but other than that she was as good as new. And hoping there wouldn't be another fight today. Sea monsters seemed to pop out of the sea every now and then, and sometimes these massive birds and pterodactyl like creatures just dropped from the clouds, in fights she didn't even try to catalogue and remember, and that nobody really did anymore. Except Quinn. After a fight she'd run below deck to find the records she kept, like some sick score card.

She just sat down and kicked back on the deck. Everyone was trying to get her take it easy. She liked to think that she was fine, but Annabeth was giving her the stink eye whenever she offered to help someone, Jason was refusing her the chance to make any effort, and Frank had tried to tie her down by force a few hours ago. Then she'd told him that he'd injure her worst, and with another stink eye (Piper was getting used to these) he left her alone.

Really though; her shoulder hurt. She knew the poison wouldn't kill her, and maybe that helped a little, but still; physical pain was physical pain. She hadn't been sure if she'd be able to handle it or not a few months ago.

It was a quiet day (so far) and everybody was doing okay (for now).

Quinn was trying to teach Percy how to play chess, and Jason and Frank were exchanging flying tips. Hazel and Leo were playing this dice game someone in one of Leo's foster homes had invented, and Frank kept turning back to make sure she was okay (even if as far as Piper knew -which was a lot as far as relationships and friendships went on the Argo II- Leo and Frank seemed to have woken up one morning without mistrusting each other). Tyson was tinkering, and Ella was perched on the railing behind him, reading a book on the Spanish revolution and giving Tyson tips on it.

It was the sweetest thing how he remembered them all and could now be quizzed on the invention of the computer, the Cold War, Eastern Canadian history (which Quinn quizzed her about), White Fang by Jack London, and how to take care of pines.

They'd passed the Balearic Islands, which were Spanish territory, earlier in the afternoon.

Piper's mind was still wrapped around her latest dream, and as some point, she got up and found Ella.

"Ella?" Piper asked.

« Aella, Latin, Harpy, English. Yes? » The harpy muttered. Tyson looked up to Piper too.

"Yes," Piper nodded. "Can I ask you a tiny favor?"

"Yes, oui, si…" Ella said.

« Can you translate something for me? » Piper asked. Ella nodded.

"Ella can translate, » she nodded. "What, who, when, what Ella translate? Google translate."

"_Ich finde dein Meister." _Piper said, recalling the exact words she'd heard from Mysterious Wonder Boys' lips. Ella paused for a minute and counted her feathers for a few seconds and was really jittery until she replied.

"Je vais trouver ton maître," she said. « French. Yup, yup, yup. I will find your master. English.»

"Thanks Ella," Piper said. "What about the first phrase."

"German. Official language of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In 1975…"

Piper thanked Ella and turned back confused. She was sure that Ella had the right answer, she just didn't understand it. The ring had a master? What kind of ring had a master? And if it wasn't the boy she saw, why did he have it in the first place?

Maybe she was just losing it. Maybe Ella had said something like 'I love my father's ring' and the Monopod venom was making her hear cryptic messages: so basically a repeat of her life's story for the last six months.

She decided against it, figuring that that was entirely wishful thinking. That ring had a story, and a master; and that boy had a part to play, Piper was nearly sure. What were the odds that the seven supposedly greatest demigods of their time were on one ship, one of (supposedly) them got a dream about him, and it wasn't involved tightly?

Piper had caught up with at least that in the demigod world.

No chances. No coincidences. And absolutely no random dreams.

She rolled her shoulder.

"Piper do you need something?" Jason offered, noticing that she played with it. "Ice, nectar, I think someone found Tylenol in some cabinet earlier..?"

"Yeah man!" Said finder called out.

"No, I'm good." She answered. What she needed was a psychic. Or a mad genius.

Her eyes landed on Annabeth. Close enough.

Piper sat down next to her friend, who was scribbling in a notebook.

"Hey, what are you up to?" Piper asked.

"Quinn and I are working on something." Annabeth said.

"On what?" Piper asked.

"The cycle of monsters that attack the ship are… Odd. Unregular. We're trying to establish something." Annabeth said. She sounded worried, and immediately that feeling sank into Piper's gut, like a transfer. If Annabeth was worried about something, odds were they were screwed.

"Okay, umm, I've got a question."

"Fire away," Annabeth said, tucking her pencil behind her ear.

"Okay, I am looking for a ring in Greco-Roman -heck; throw in your Egyptian- mythology." Piper said.

"A ring?" Annabeth said. "Or ring_s." _

"Both," Piper lied, figuring it wouldn't hurt. Annabeth thought for a second.

"The Greek and Romans were the first to observe rings on planets," Annabeth said. "I've heard of a lot of rings, but most of them are much newer than the Bronze Age. Made by demigods and graced by a god, or given their powers from a child of Hecate or Hephaestus mostly. There's one artefact, but it's secured at Camp when I asked Chiron about it. Why, Piper?"

The 'why'. That was the hardest part to come up with, and it was the part that Annabeth most often saw right through, Piper knew.

"No reason, just… Heard about a magic belt and I was wondering if there were other magical accessories," Piper said, piling on some charmspeak.

"Look," Annabeth said in a way that let Piper know that she wasn't getting away with it. "Dreams can destroy demigods. Look at Hazel who's on the very verge of cardiac arrest now, or Quinn who can barely sleep. Jason worries about Thalia all the time, and I won't even tell you the worst cases I've seen over the last ten years at camp. Just be careful, and talk about it. When a group of demigods get together, dreams melt away. I'm not going to jump into your head, because your dreams are yours and yours for a reason; but I don't want you to get hurt."

Annabeth was Piper's best girl friend at camp- or actually ever, because Piper had somehow never understood the female brain that was technically also hers. She was cool to hang out with, smart, a good listener, and really honest even if you didn't want to hear it- part of being wise. But lately, Piper felt like Annabeth was slipping off. That she didn't know where her head was anymore- or her heart. Breaking up with Percy had been step one, but all these little details came to surface and confused the life out of Piper. Annabeth suddenly spilling her emotions easier, which she hadn't at Camp Half-Blood even under all the stress and anxiety and pressure…

"Don't worry Annabeth, everything's going to be okay." Piper said, not sure what 'everything' was right now. "So what exactly are you and Quinn working on?"

"It's too quick to say," Annabeth said. "Quite frankly, it'll only worry you."

Yeah; because when Annabeth Chase said something like that it wasn't worrying _at all. _

Crept out right now, and quite bummed out by the zero hits on the ring, she decided to let it go (maybe) for now (even if she'd be thinking about it in about twelve seconds) and went to find out if Percy's figured out how to play chess yet.

Frank

He walked down the stairs quietly, and he paused mid step when he heard the humming. He looked and she saw Josie dancing to her hum. For a second Frank had to make sure it was really Josie and not some crazy goddess or resurrected dancer of doom because the dancing was _good. _It was smooth, skilled, intricate, flowing… That girl knew how to _dance._ She could be in a music video or movie or something.He just watched until Josie finished her song with something he vaguely remembered being called a corkscrew from this torturous hip-hop workshop in seventh grade, and then a pancake split, basically a split except she was flattened to the ground completely, leaning forth.

"You're good," he said since there didn't seem to be a way to tell Josie that without startling her. She spun towards him pushing herself to her feet, and she shot him a look.

"_Oh Dios, _don't scare me like that." Josie said, getting up. "How long were you watching?"

"Not too long," Frank said walking down the rest of the stairs. "But long enough to know that you're a good dancer."

"Yeah, well," Josie said dusting off her shoulders. "Had to stay alive somehow. On a good day enough coins can land in a little hat I lost while running to buy something from somewhere fast-food and cheap, or help that family of seven that was on the verge of sharing my alley. And it's my ticket into clubs. I used to think a music director would see me dance and walk up to me. Like in the movies, you know?"

"Yeah," he said, remembering some more movies in torturous seventh grade dance classes.

"Of course it didn't happen. Usually I ended up stealing something and running for _mi vida." _

"It would've happened eventually. Not everyone moves like that." Frank said.

"_Gracias a Dio_. Then I wouldn't be special." Josie said. "Just another homeless kid with issues. Although the flying boat boosts the whole 'special' concept I've got going."

"I think you are special," Frank said.

"What, the yesterday weird moment of psychic?" Josie said. She blew her bangs out of her face. "You guys are sure you didn't tell me?"

"A hundred percent," Frank said. "I don't tell people about my Mom much."

"Ah," Josie said. "How did she die?"

"How did you know she was dead?" Frank asked coldly. He tried to push that feeling of hardness away, it wasn't Josie's fault, and she was allowed to ask. He'd told Piper when she'd asked anyways; and Percy too.

"I don't know, just did." Josie said, sitting on the counter.

"Josie, how do you know any of those things? Is it, like, instinct or a memory you have or..?"

"It's a voice in my mind, soft and melodious like a bird. It whispers to me." Josie said. Frank's eyes sprawled.

"Really?" He said thinking of Quinn's voices -or gods forbid, Gaia- immediately.

"No, idiot, I don't know any more than you do." Josie said hopping off the counter. "And if you tell anyone I can dance, I'll show you something called a _death dance._"

And with that she marched back upstairs.

Jason

"Josie," he said, looking up from his book. "Are you doing anything?"

"Yes, I'm incredibly busy doing my summer algebra homework and finishing this 3D puzzle of Caesar's bust." She said.

Josie didn't particularly like the habit of standing around the ship doing nothing, but her sarcasm was so thick Jason had yet to find anything she particularly liked.

"Well come here," Jason said getting to his feet. Percy crossed his gaze and Jason nodded to him. His cousin wandered off as Josie walked up to him and looked him in the eyes.

"What can I do for you, Caesar?"

"You can stop calling me Caesar, because I'm not an emperor," he started off. "And two, it's time you learn how to defend yourself."

Annabeth shut her book.

"Jason, she's only been here two days…"

"Still, we're lucky we haven't been attacked in those two days' time." Jason said. "_Really_ lucky, actually."

"Not really, it's l-logical." Quinn said. "The monopod scent must've hung on us, and Tyson says that it's strong."

"Stinky," the later nodded.

"It's covering us up." Quinn said.

"Still, that won't last forever." Jason said.

Percy wandered back up with a sword and he handed it to Josie. She took it by the hilt and her arm immediately sunk.

"_Dio, _what is this made of, bricks with identity crises who want to be elephants?" She complained, lifting it.

"Celestial bronze. It's even less heavy than Imperial Gold, which is what a Roman sword is made of. But now we'll start with this, because it's more complicated to manoeuvre, weight aside."

"How does that mean it's a good idea to start me off with this? I wasn't raised by a she-wolf whose main mothering instincts are furnishing one with swords, by the way."

Jason didn't even ask how (and if) she knew that he'd been raised by Lupa. He didn't know if it was something she was conscient she knew, or an instinct of some sort.

"Because if you master this and end up to be Greeks; you'll be fine at Camp. And if you master this and end up being Roman, the _gladus _will come easy for you at the fort. Trust me." Jason said.

"Trust the boy with the sword, of course, I've done stupider things," Josie muttered. Jason got the feeling she didn't like this. Well that was her problem; he rather make her learn fight than have her die under his watch.

"Josie, there are three children of the three elder gods on this ship and the five others here are powerful as well. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the odds are against you too. You don't want a monster to come here without your knowing how to fight. I don't care if you'll hate me for it, but you're going to have to learn." Jason said. Josie shot him a look meaning she _did _hate him for it. Jason wasn't used to dealing with this kind of soldier. When he used to be centurion with Gwen, before he was elected praetor, any legionnaire who didn't listen was punished, simple as that. Most of them were smarter than that too, but Josie's heavy attitude wasn't anything he couldn't handle. He starred her down showing that he wouldn't budge. And when he didn't budge, _he didn't budge _Reyna called him the most stubborn legionnaire in the world_._

"Okay, how do I hold this thing?" She finally said.

For most of the afternoon Jason was showing her how to hold a sword, and the basic swings, and how to use it. Percy helped as well since he knew the_ Xiphos_- Greek sword- better, but he wasn't as strict of a teacher. Jason had to be. In the legion, you moved fast or got trampled, and this quest was even harsher on that subject.

Josie obviously hated using a sword, which made Jason think of a child of Apollo even more. But you could run out of ammo, and the only bow around was Frank's, and he doubted that the later would be too fond of sharing. Especially with Josie because she seemed to scare him. Jason honestly did not blame the guy.

"Dude, I am _mucho _tired right now." Josie said.

"You're going to be tired in a fight," Jason said.

"Dude," Percy said. "She's not 100% in the first place; sleep and food and stuff. Give it a rest; it's her first time with any weapon."

"And the sword isn't it," Annabeth peeped. "I agree, it was practical, and it was the best base to give her; but it's just not her weapon."

"Yeah, even the smart person says so," Josie said. Jason was going to protest that in a fight a monster or –gods forbid (not that they could) - Gaia wouldn't give her a break. But he left it alone.

"Okay," he said. "Your arms will be sore tomorrow."

"I appreciate it." Josie said. Jason bit his tongue, and turned back towards the wheel where Leo hung out, tinkering with wires. He sat down at the foot of the mast and when he did everyone turned back to their own thing.

"She is _so _on your nerves, man." Leo said.

"It's that easy to tell?" Jason muttered.

"Oh yes," Leo said.

"She's so spitfire when she talks. Sarcastic and rude and she has _so _much attitude…"

"Dude," Leo said. "Chill it. She's not that bad. Well, okay, she is. But she shouldn't be the end of you. I think that your problem is that you're not used to being talked to that way."

"What do you mean?" Jason asked. "I hang out with you guys."

"Yeah, but you consider us equals. Josie… I think you see Josie as a new recruit. And new recruits are supposed to awe the praetors and whatever."

"I'm not praetor." Jason said.

"Oh come on, man- we all know you're still praetor after all this is over. Percy goes to New York because no way is he staying in New Rome, and la, la, la, BAM, you're praetor."

"That's not-"

"Don't even say that the people are going to have to vote," Leo said. "_You're _still their praetor. Deep down, at the end of the day, you always were their praetor. Anyways, you just can't handle that from her. Plus you must be getting dream crud like the rest of us, so there goes that."

"I guess," Jason said. "But she confuses me too. We don't know a whole lot about her- we're not even _sure _if Apollo's her dad…"

"Oh trust me it is," Frank said walking by quickly on his way down.

"Okay, so Apollo _is _her dad apparently," Jason said. "But…"

"Dude, you don't make sense." Leo said. Jason sighed.

"No, I don't."

"You tired or something? Stupid question, yes you are. Of course you are." Leo said. He spun the wheel with a hand and the boat jerked. "We all are."

"Okay, what's up with you?" Jason said, snapping back to himself. He'd felt out-of-body the whole morning, Leo was right. But that was the thing, Leo was right. He may be one of Jason's best friends in Olympus, but seriously?

"I'm being nostalgic, bro. I don't know if it's the ocean, or the dreams, or…"

"What dreams?" Jason asked. Leo scratched his head and frowned.

"It's complicated," Leo said. Jason thought it must be prettydang complicated for Leo to be nostalgic about it.

"Was it about your mom?" Jason asked. That was the only exception. His mom sent Leo back to dark places of him that shouldn't exist. Places where he was sad and lost in his head, quiet, and –Jason was pretty sure- incredibly, gut-wrenchingly guilty.

"Nah," Leo said. "Those are getting old too, though." He shuffled his feet a bit.

"Leo! I don't get what Josie is saying!" Hazel yelled above deck.

"Why, is she swearing in Spanish again?" Leo called back down.

"I don't know, I guess it depends what these words mean," Hazel said before listing the words in question herself.

"Owe Hazel, _my ears." _ Leo complained. "Watch your language Esposito!" He yelled down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know horses lived in the ocean and enjoyed window-whipping portholes." Josie said sarcastically.

"Horse?" Percy asked straightening up.

"Yeah, in the… Ocean…" Jason said cocking his head.

"Sweet; hippocampi!" Percy said, bouncing to his feet and leaning over the railing. Jason heard horse sounds. Percy turned back.

"He's trying to say something. Do you guys mind..?"

"Go for it," Jason said. "Enjoy."

"Fish ponies?" Tyson perked up.

"You bet. You coming, big guy?"

And with that two of them jumped over deck- with a quick permission request towards Ella about interrupting a game of cards. Josie and Hazel wandered over deck and it was hard to tell which one was more confused.

"Percy… Tyson… Hippocampi?" Hazel asked.

"Okay well think of it this way," Josie said. "Your friend Zhang over here turns into animals. Tyson in the water has one eye. Ella's got wings and a desktop where her brain should be. Technically, horse ponies are one step closer to normal."

"Point taken," Leo said.

"And you bring that step back," she told Leo. "Do you guys have soda?"

"No," Hazel said.

"Damn, that would've been amazing." Josie said. "I miss soda. And chocolate. Solid land too."

Annabeth walked above deck.

"I've got it!" She said.

"What have you got?" Piper asked.

"I know what's going on with Josie," Annabeth said, kneeling on the deck. She opened a binder and took out slips of paper.

"I appreciate how your conversations always include me being there in person," the Spaniard commentated.

"Get over here if you're such a physical presence." Annabeth said, sitting down on the deck, shuffling paper that looked like the flash cards Jason had learned the Roman emperors with when he was a kid. Josie knelt in front of her.

"Okay, each of these cards has a brand of soda on it since you like it so much. You're going to have to guess whose favourite it is."

"How the flip am I supposed to know that?" Josie asked.

"Same way you know about all our parents," Annabeth said. "Ready?"

"Whatever." Josie said, lowering herself so she was cross-legged. Annabeth picked up a slip of paper with 'Mountain Dew' written on it.

"No idea," Josie said.

"Think for a couple of seconds," Annabeth said. "Really try. I promise I will find you soda if you do."

"You're not above bribery, eh?" Josie said.

"I use any means I have to," Annabeth said. Her lip shook for a second, and Jason thought something else was going on with that sentence.

"I never said I wasn't a fan," she said, lifting her hands. "But I give up. Who is it?"

"Jason," Annabeth said. "Okay, this one." She said holding up a slip with 'Pepsi' written on.

"Frank," Josie said immediately.

"Good," Annabeth said.

"Actually, I had no idea; I just saw his eyes light up like a puppy who wants a treat." Josie said. Frank blushed and walked away, kicking his feet.

"Sorry Annabeth, carry on." Frank said. She picked up 'Sprite' (Hazel), 'Coke' (Percy), 'Dr Pepper' (Quinn), 'Cream soda' (herself), 'Doesn't like Soda' (Piper) and 'Root Beer' (Leo). She got none of them right.

"I don't get this. Is it perhaps a trick question?" Josie asked.

"No, it's a test."

"You do realise that I am nearly totally uneducated." Josie said.

"Not that kind of test." Annabeth said. "Close your eyes."

"False! Wait, is this multiple choice?"

"Josie close 'em!" Annabeth said. Josie listened and Annabeth reshuffled her cards, and threw in a few more.

"Okay, open them." Annabeth said. Josie looked at her, unimpressed. "Look, you're going to name me a food. Then I'll pick a card, and we'll see if I pick what you said."

"That's dumb," Josie said. "I don't even know what you've written there. You can't have all the foods in the world on that."

"Want to bet?" Jason heard Frank mutter.

"Josie, you're going to have to work with me here. Then you can go back to being snotty." Annabeth said.

"As if I need your permission," she answered.

"You don't need my knife at your throat either, so I personally suggest you go along."

"I have a sudden urge of cooperation," Josie said.

"Fantastic." Annabeth said. Jason shook his head. Annabeth had the how-to-deal-with-Josie nailed down. "Okay, start."

"I don't know… Rice?" Annabeth's hand hovered above the slips of paper and she picked one. She flipped it over.

"Fried Rice," she said.

"What the _Diablo _is fried rice?" Josie frowned.

"It's Chinese food," Leo said.

"Why do they fry their rice? Why does anyone fry their rice? Dang it, that is not okay." Josie said.

"Okay, close enough." Annabeth said moving the card into one pile.

"Do I have to put 'fried' in front of everything else? Is it an American thing?"

Frank and Quinn burst out laughing, and he had to shove his fist in his mouth.

"I'm sorry, you just have no idea what kind of stereotypes my classes in Canada can dig up. Fried food is, like, top ten material." He said. "No offence to you guys, I did say stereotypes. Not legit facts…"

"Eh?" Leo said.

"Leo don't go there," Annabeth said. "And no Josie, I'm pretty sure the rest of them are natural."

"Okay then. Watermelon."

Annabeth picked another one and looked down at it. She didn't look surprised.

"You're right." She said.

"Whoa, lucky guess," Piper said in a hushed tone.

"We'll see," Annabeth said, moving 'watermelon' next to the last card.

"Peanuts," Josie said. The card was right, and so Annabeth placed it above 'watermelon'.

They all watched dumbstruck as card after card piled on with the rest.

"This is dumb." Josie said.

"What do you mean?" Jason said. "This is… This is amazing. If not worrying. You got them all right."

"14 out of 15, and the one seemed to be because you didn't know what fried rice was." Annabeth said. "Josie, Jason's right. This is amazing, and it explains everything. From why you just took that turn when the police was after you, to how you knew about our mortal parents to-"

"Me knowing about you and Percy over there?" Josie said, waving her hand above deck to symbolise.

"-To you knowing about other things," Annabeth said carefully. "Josie, you're psychic."


	55. XXVIII Reyna

**Hi folks! Once again I am in the pickle where I cannot and will not answer to annons due to TIME. Maybe next time I post. Sorry annons, if you had a question once again, post it again :( I'm freakishly busy: I just had a week of theater and guess where I'm going tonight? Oh yeah, more theatre. The guys on Fanpop had this before, but you have it now. Enjoy!**

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><p>XXVIII<br>Reyna  
><span>July 14th<span>

She leaned her head against her arm, wondering if sleep would come. She doubted it.  
>Images of Octavian's death flashed through her mind. A few of the fourth cohort's legionnaires had come to pick up his body later in the day of his murder, but they hadn't cleaned up the last bloodstain on the floor. They'd also tied her up, legs weighed down like a Medieval prisoner and arms out like she was about to get crucified- which, if anything, she might. She hadn't heard from anybody since. The guards came down once a day to spoon-feed her with whatever the nymphs had cooked up, and the contents of a water bottle. It was humiliating for Reyna, and she'd downright <em>refused<em> yesterday. Joan herself hadn't been back- that she-hellhound.  
>That was when she heard the sound of a tiny electric saw. She craned her neck and looked above her, where the sound was coming from. Someone was drilling through marble? Suddenly there was a CLANK! sound and a rough oval shape was hauled out of the way. Leaning over the hole she saw Morgan Salam- son of Vulcan.<br>"Kay, I got in." The young half-blood said, swishing his hair to the right to get it out of his face.  
>"Thanks Morgan, go back to the barrack, be careful." Reyna heard in a familiar voice- a voice she hadn't heard in a long time. Her hear started beating when she heard it. <em>Contact,<em> she thought. _Maybe someone'll care to explain what the heck is going on_. Morgan got up and she heard busy footsteps fumbling away, and then she saw Dakota's face looking at her. Black curls flopping down, dark eyes, and peach fuzz.  
>"What are you doing here?" She asked in a whisper. "How did you get in here?"<br>"I ran. Really fast. Like, so fast, I could even beat you in a race. Lyn picked the lock on the principia and Morgan cut through the floor while Gwen keeps the rest of the cohort safe in bed, they stick pillows under our blankets to impersonate us in case the fourth comes investigating, and I've got Jessie as a look-out since she's small and nearly invisible in the shadows. It's a group effort."  
>"Dakota <em>get out of here<em>," Reyna hissed.  
>"As much as I wish you were still praetor- you're not, so you can't give me orders." Dakota said.<br>"Why are you never sugar-drunk when I need your reasoning dulled?" Reyna said.  
>"Haven't drunk in weeks," Dakota said. "Not since everything fell apart. Look, here's some food, we know Joan's been cutting rations." He dropped a Ziploc with bread, jerky, and dried apple chips and Reyna let it fall to the ground, even if she could've caught it between her neck and shoulder.<br>"It doesn't matter," Reyna said kicking the Ziploc under some straw. That's what she and Hylla had done when they'd acquired their first weapons aboard Blackbeard's ship. The memory haunted her- but she was sucked back to it every time she looked around and saw prison. Confinement. Small spaces. To every lash of a whip, domestic task, taunt, threat, and smack on the back of the head that she'd gotten out of it. "Hunger is nothing to me. Besides, where did you get that?"  
>"New Rome," Dakota said, "another group effort. Terminus is super cool about letting the fifth cohort sneak by for medical care and stuff."<br>"_Medical care_?" Reyna whispered loudly. "Why in Rome and Olympus does the fifth cohort need medical care?"  
>"It's a long story," Dakota said. "One you'll hear once we bust you out of here. Just tell me where you and Jason hid the spare key- I'm pretty sure Joan doesn't know about it."<br>"No!" Reyna said. "No, you can't bust me out of here, Rome will be divided."  
>"Where is it?"<br>"It's hidden behind the velvet on the walls, but you don't know where so listen to me. Joan holds all the cards."  
>"Not cohorts number five and three," Dakota said.<br>"The other cohorts are honour bound. At least the fourth and first cohorts are: when you come out of _probatio_ you swear on the Earth to stay loyal to your praetor- they can't break that, or they'll die. And the second cohort is where the rest of Joan's family is. They won't go after her. She holds all the cards," Reyna said. "And that's dangerous."  
>"We'll run away then, the cohort is more than ready and three will come. We can join the Greeks, on the other side of the country. At the camp Jason was at."<br>"We won't have our weapons, or our full strength. I'd be unarmed."  
>"We'd steal you a weapon."<br>"No, we'd arrive like hairs in a bowl of soup. That gives us nothing. We wouldn't have the siege machines, Hannibal, Scipio… My way is better. They'll know we're in trouble any time, and they'll come."  
>"How are they supposed to know, Joan's second is blocking all communication from this place!" Dakota complained. Joan's second was a child of Mercury- he'd have the power for it…<br>"I sent my dogs." Reyna said.  
>"Oh <em>that's<em> where they went," Dakota said, his face splitting into a huge grin. "'Atta girl, Reyna. We were keeping motor oil handy just for them, in case they stuck their snouts out of some hiding spot, starved half to death."  
>"My dogs don't hide," Reyna frowned. "Look, if we wait for help, we get rid of Joan with the help. I'll then control the whole legion again. It'll minimise bloodshed and risk, and maximise resources."<br>"Help from..?"  
>"Get off your pedestal and calm your ego down, Dakota; we <em>need<em> help from the Greeks."  
>Dakota took a deep breath.<br>"If you're sure…"  
>"Yes I'm sure." Reyna said. "But I need you to keep the cohort calm and orderly. I don't want any legionnaire hurt-"<br>"Except for Joan."  
>"Joan's a traitor." Reyna said. "She isn't a legionnaire anymore. I don't want any legionnaire hurt because they smart-mouthed to Joan, let me do that. Tell Brady from the third to transmit the message to his cohort. Stick together- Joan's going to eye the Centurions for the two legions like a child eyes candy- she'll try and get rid of you. Share arenas, spend your three time together, eat together in the dining hall along with a few legionnaires to back you up-"<br>"Oh, we're not allowed to eat in the dining hall anymore. We eat on the steps leading to it, or with the fort's fauns- who are better company anyways. We're forbidden to eat there since Cate Amjad and Lyn enchanted the banners to fall again, except on Joan. They had 'Familiar?' written on it. I was quite proud of them."  
>"Just stay together, Dakota, that's all that I'm saying." Reyna said, not even imagining what kind of personal punishment the daughter of Trivia and the daughter of Mercury had earned. "Is that clear?"<br>"Yes Reyna."  
>"And don't you try sneaking me more food either, it's dangerous. I'm fine." Reyna said.<br>"Okay. What's Joan's next move?" Dakota asked.  
>"I don't know, what moves have she made so far?" Reyna asked, expecting the worst. Maybe she'd done like ancient Roman cities, and installed crucifixes outside the fort to remind everybody that death was indeed that close. Maybe she'd made a bigger example of Reyna than she had imagined.<br>"We're not allowed to go to New Rome anymore," Dakota said. "Or out of the fort, period. Goodbye Berkeley weekends and war games in the Fields of Mars."  
>"And what about the Caldecott tunnel patrols?"<br>"Gone," Dakota said. "Deemed unnecessary, according to her majesty. No demigod could be coming from the Wolf house now, anyways. Too many monsters. You look over the walls and you see swarms of them."  
>Reyna locked her jaw. For all they knew there was a demigod banging on the Caldecott tunnel door right now begging for entry and not understand why he couldn't get in, or worst; a skeleton picked clean of flesh and skin.<br>"And the legionnaires? Has any demigod gone missing since Jedediah Adams? Son of Virtus? Was he found?"  
>"No, and nobody understands it. Brady is out of his mind with worry and guilt."<br>"Has Joan lifted a finger to find him?"  
>"No," Dakota said. "He's third cohort gunk. One of his best friends is on the Argo II, and he was friendly with Leo V while he was here. He's one more problem off her list, really."<br>"And have you guys tried?"  
>"Gwen sent word to her sister in New Rome via Terminus- he's helping us out, like I said before. A few of the veterans are looking themselves. And his brothers are popular too; not only did the one in New Rome signal their mother, but they have a brother whose out of New Rome and in the military who signalled the branch of the mortal military that's our ally. They're looking for him like they looked for Jason. His bros in New Rome are in the third, like him, so they're stirring up storms too."<br>"What about the fifth cohort? You mentioned medical care?" Reyna said. She couldn't do anything about Jedediah Adams.  
>Dakota grinned. "We're being cheeky."<br>"You're being cheeky?" Reyna repeated. She couldn't _wait_ to hear this one.  
>"Yeah. We're getting kind of rebellious and snarky and you should have seen that thing with the scrolls that Cate Amjad did. She is <em>seriously<em> ticked off about her friend being gone- shy blond on the boat, you know, Quinn Hunter. We're sending bird calls from our barracks to aggravate the legionnaires from the fourth cohort- they're being treated like little princes, reason more for them to stick with Joan. The only work they do is night patrol. Oh, and we also steal paintballs, there's a stock in the dumpster."  
>"Don't do it," Reyna said.<br>"We're not _looking_ for trouble, Rey. It just sucks to see you in chains, and have Jason gone, Percy too, and be under _her_ control."  
>"I never said it didn't," Reyna said. "But you can't keep doing that."<br>She didn't think her message went across well, because despite the small space, the gravity of the situation, and the fact that Dakota was right, it _did_ suck, she was smiling.


	56. XXVIV Hazel, Piper

XXVIV  
><span>Hazel<span>

"Wow, your world is a scary place," Josie said. "So what can Jason do? Fly?"  
>"The worst part of that statement is that Jason can harness the winds thanks to the blessing of Aeolus he got from a quest. So yes, flying." Quinn said.<br>"That's beside the point and no proof whatsoever!" Josie said. "I'm no psychic. I'm a lost child that's been abducted from home sweet home. Well okay, the streets, who were more nasty-smelling than sweet."  
>"Well if you wanted to be caught by the police, you could've just told Percy and sent us a postcard about how the orphanage was working out for you." Annabeth said.<br>"My vision of an orphanage doesn't include mail service. It's more of a dark brick and low lighting building with grey Jell-O food and sticks. Long sticks that beat children." Josie said.  
>"Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but it's very important. Quinn and Hazel filled you in on what was going on?" Annabeth said.<br>"Yeah," Hazel said. "We told her about everything in the last ten or so months." Well, the parts that Josie didn't already seem to know.  
>Since last afternoon, Hazel and Quinn had been spending a lot of time with Josie. Once you swerved around the sarcasm and 'when', 'who', 'what' and 'how' questions, she was okay. She was an amazing story teller, and deep down she actually <em>wanted<em> more stories to tell. It was always weird when Quinn would point out that Josie was implying or using a detail she wasn't supposed to know. Josie would sort of blink and go 'alright then', and then the conversation would go on. To Hazel, Annabeth's explanation made sense. She just knew these things right off the bat, things that no demigod did when they were introduced to the demigod world- even some things you wouldn't know unless you were really close to the boat's crew. No matter how much of a cannonball it represented for Josie, which Hazel assumed was a big one, Hazel was pretty sure it was true. Plus it'd come from Annabeth's mouth.  
>"Well then you know that prophecies and oracles basically built and destroyed empire."<br>"Sibylline books," Ella said to herself.  
>"-And if your father is Apollo, it's even more likely. And see, you didn't know present facts like everyone's favourite sodas-"<br>"That's because nobody cares about people's freaking sodas." Josie said.  
>Annabeth said. "But things about the future? Guessing what would come next on those cards? You had it."<br>"This is mental!" Josie said jumping to her feet. "I can deal with your little plans to save the world and Mowgli over there teaching me to sword fight," she said gesturing towards Jason, "but this is a lie!"  
>"Josie-" Annabeth said.<br>"No!" She yelled. Hazel blinked. She'd seen Josie be snotty, uncooperative, sarcastic, blunt, and maybe even rude. But she'd never yelled. She'd never sounded like this- this being a broken and hurt and mad girl.  
>"Josie-" Annabeth started.<br>"No, I don't want to hear it, _for God's sake!_" Josie yelled at Annabeth. "I don't want to hear another one of your theories or factoids or any of it!"  
>"Josie, what is your problem with this?" Annabeth asked. "It's a power; it's part of who you are."<br>"No it ISN'T!" Josie yelled. "It freaking isn't! Okay? I'm not a half-blood! I'm not like the rest of you! I'm not special!"  
>"Josie, what is your problem with it? It's hard, but we all have to deal with it, and some of us have had it just as friggin hard as you," said Frank. Hazel's face got hotter when she felt his eyes dart to her.<br>"I'm not a freak!" Josie said, totally freaking out about this and taking it very, very badly.  
>"This doesn't mean you're a freak." Jason said.<br>"Well then it means I deserved being thrown out of the house by my mom, I deserved a year on the streets, scavenging for food and starving and running away from the drug dealers who wanted to make me a vender, or the social services and GOD!" Josie said grabbing her head in her hands, bent in two, and blocking her ears. "You have no idea what it's like! None of you, okay? Leo's pretty damn close, but the rest of you always had help or instructions or a clue what the hell was going on in this mess of a dang friggin world that hates us all and make us hate it back!"  
>It suddenly hit everyone that Josie was human. Her sarcasm and snarky tongue hid that from them usually. It hid the trace of any other emotion she could possibly have. But were they any less present? No. Josie was just snarky because the alternative was being… Well, miserable. And nobody wanted to be miserable. And Josie's hard life, scared mother and harsh living conditions hadn't changed her will to be happy, so she'd at least refuse to acknowledge that miserableness. It wasn't that unlike Leo, who hid behind his jokes.<br>To everyone's surprise and then some, Leo was the one who walked up to Josie. Usually Annabeth was good at handling at Josie when the time bomb effect in her came out- mostly because Annabeth was good as replying in equally snarky manner, and dealing with people with hard pasts, hard futures and hard presents.  
>But Hazel wasn't surprised. She knew about that soft part of Leo from when he'd come talk to her about his family history on deck.<br>The world suddenly seemed to pixelate (Hazel had just found out about computer screens), but she pushed it into focus, pushed thoughts of her old life and Sammy Valdez and things from long ago away.  
>Leo just talked to her in Spanish. Even if the language was foreign to her (and if not completely, at least 99% foreign), Hazel could tell that it was soothing Josie. She let go of her head and literally paid attention to the person talking to her- always a feat. He said something and opened his palm so fire danced across his skin. Hazel heard the word '<em>Mamà'<em>, which she knew meant 'mother'. Her heart clenched for Leo.  
>Josie took a deep breath and replied something weekly. Leo said something and Josie finally just nodded.<br>"Fine," she said. She looked beaten down. "Fine."  
>Suddenly there was the splashing sound of the century and it made her jump- remembering that Percy and Tyson were in the water.<br>"Hey," Percy said. Riptide was in his hand and Hazel thought 'shoot'. "You know when the hippocampi were trying to talk to us, before we actually went in?" His tone was urgent and rushed and breathless.  
>"Yeah, what about it?"<br>"They say land straight ahead." Percy said.  
>"We're not due to hit any country now," Piper said, examining the first map she'd been able to grab.<br>"Well you tell that to the island who's coming up."  
>Annabeth drew her knife, and Jason put his hand on the hilt of his gladus.<br>"This can't be good," Hazel said. She thought back to the illusion of Camp Half-Blood they'd seen before. That was the next step; a Camp Jupiter that'd stir up at the first sight of their warship. Oh brother…  
>But before anything could be said or done; the ship was at swimming distance of the island.<br>"WHOA Percy help me with the anchors!" Leo said. Hazel had barely turned her head in time to see them throwing the anchors overboard.  
>"Any shallower, and we're stuck in the sand." Percy explained.<br>"Damage to the hull," Leo ranted. "Jake and Nyssa would kill me. _I'd_ kill me!"  
>"Nobody's killing you Valdez, we're fine; Tyson and Percy caught it in time." Jason said.<br>"Well, my guess is that we're supposed to get off now." Percy said, leaning across the railing. Hazel would've grabbed his shirt and pulled him back if he weren't a son of Poseidon.  
>"Okay, are we going to go exploring again?"<br>"No." Annabeth said sharply. "We shouldn't go looking for trouble, we have enough of it."  
>"Well, we're here for a reason." Percy said, probably for the heck of going up against Annabeth.<br>"Last time we were somewhere, Gaia had planned for us to be there all along and we nearly all died." Annabeth said.  
>"Well it's a darn shame that I missed <em>that<em>," Josie said. She was looking over the railing quite fascinated herself. "What do you think is there? What do you call a cannibal in this Greco-Roman mythology? What about a tribe of tropical cannibals?"  
>"Why is she allowed to point that out and not me?" Leo muttered.<br>"Look, if the psychic is seeing cannibals, we should really stay away." Piper said. Josie scowled.  
>"I guess it-"<br>That's when they heard the voice.  
>"Gods- get back! Help me!"<br>And then this roaring sound that was most definitely something the gods should help out with.  
>Glances crossed.<br>"Someone's in trouble," Percy said swinging a leg over the railing.  
>"I'm going with him," Jason said, kicking off the deck into flight. When both of them agreed to go, everyone melted into the mind frame that someone was going to check it out.<br>"I'm not going." Annabeth said. And automatically Hazel thought that that had just a bit too much to do with the fact that Percy was going.  
>"Me no," Tyson said.<br>"Ella follow Tyson," the harpy said.  
>"Great, well, I'll come if that' okay." Piper said. Hazel couldn't help but keep a close eye on Piper and how she seemed attracted to the island, maybe too attracted. Like she was hypnotized, her eyes wouldn't leave the oasis as if she was looking for something.<br>"Yeah, I'm going to hang behind. That last time I went out kind-of terrified me and besides, we can't make the same mistake of no-driver twice." Leo said. "Especially since we're so shallow."  
>"I'll stay," Frank said.<br>"Me too," Hazel decided.  
>"I can't fight." Josie said. "So I'm guessing I should stay nice and safe and let you guys hog the life threatening activities."<br>"Come on," Jason said holding out his hand. "We'll see what we can find, and come back. Quinn, have you got something that blows?"  
>She blushed but nodded. She reached into her pocket and found two small capsules that could've been medicine. She dropped them in Jason's cupped hand, and he thanked her.<br>"If you hear a blast, then we're in trouble. Two blasts mean that you've got to leave ASAP. We have Percy who swims and I can fly, we can cover Piper; we'll catch up if we can." Jason said. It sounded like a plan to everyone, and nobody wanted to lose the monster's sound since it was a hot trail; so they left. All eyes were on the three until they disappeared into the shrubbery.  
>"I think we should back up," Annabeth said. "We're in too shallow; a quick getaway won't work like this."<br>"True," Leo admitted. "Just help me raise the anchors, will you? Pull on those red levers- Frank not that red lever, that's burgundy! Yes, that one."  
>"Why not just label them," Frank muttered.<br>"We did, but in Greek."  
>"Well that's a thorough lack of planning," Frank said, pulling on a lever to raise the anchors; one feature of the Argo II that the Greek trireme did not have. Hazel pulled on one of the levers while Annabeth tackled the last. Leo drove the book further into the waves, and only dropped one anchor. Hazel squinted anyways, to try and see as far as the island, but she didn't.<p>

Piper  
>"You're anxious to get somewhere," Percy said. Piper looked over her shoulder. Both sons of the Big Three were following her, because for some reason she was in front. She slashed with Katoptris through the jungle, like some kind of Sacajawea. <em>No, don't think that, Josie's going to detect it in your brain and replace 'Pocahontas' by it.<em>  
>"I don't know," Piper said. "If that really was a half-blood out there…"<br>"Okay, Josie I can sort-of accept us picking up out of sheer luck. But another?" Jason said. "We're not even in any country."  
>"Cannibals," Percy said. "I swear, you think it's just Canada, but they're everywhere."<br>"That's not something you want to tell us now," Piper said, ploughing through a bunch.  
>"Wait," Jason said. He knelt to the ground and passed his hands over dirt.<br>"There's a print," he said. "But it's not like a normal print. It's…"  
>"A hiking boot?" Percy asked as they crowded around.<br>"A flat," Piper said. "A ballerina flat, size 8."  
>They looked at her oddly and she blushed.<br>"Shut up, it was helpful." She said. Shoe instincts. Yes, no need to be able to find tracks in the wild, or tie knots, solve logic problems or puzzles, climb- no, none of that. Shoe instincts.  
>"A girl then," Jason said.<br>"Maybe Josie has a sister." Percy said as Jason got back up.  
>"Jupiter Optimus, I hope not." Jason said. They followed the tracks for a while and Piper stopped.<br>"I'm having flashbacks from my cabin here… Perfume." Piper said. "A lot of it."  
>"Okay, shoes and perfume on an island," Jason said. "Does Aphrodite have a sacred island?"<br>"I don't know," Piper said. "Don't look at me."  
>"So you know shoes but not mythology?"<br>"Shut up Percy."  
>"Let's keep going." Jason said. He figured that if the peacekeeper and the son of Poseidon got in a fight, there went that idea.<br>The perfume grew stronger, but so did another smell, a very, very _horrible_ smell. It wasn't like the smell of monsters, it was just… Bad. Words couldn't be twisted and put together to describe it, it just made Piper's nose want to jump off the rest of her face and run away in terror. The perfume wasn't masking it, it made it worst.  
>"Okay, what is that?" Percy asked. "It smells like every monster in the world zeroed-into this place."<br>"If you jinx it, I swear I'll hurt you." Jason said, drawing his gladus. Piper knocked on a tree and figured that since a tree was the most primary form of wood, she was covered. They advanced and heard a slithering sound again. The demigod yelled again. But it wasn't out of fear or something. It just sounded like a war cry of some sort. Her heart went faster.  
>"He's not afraid," Jason made out in the sound.<br>"Well I am," Piper said. "That sounded like one big snake."  
>"I hate snakes," Percy said. Then he grabbed Piper's arm.<br>"Turn," he said.  
>Their steps led them to the edge of a clearing. Piper had to choke back about five things right then. First a gag; because this was definitely where the smell was coming from. Then fear, because there was an enormous bonfire in the middle of the glade. And if that wasn't enough to freak her out, a huge wooden pole was planted in the ground like some distorted totem pole, and a guy was tied onto it.<br>Then there was shock and surprise. Because she recognised the guy from her dreams. 


	57. XXX Piper

**PS- right now Roman decimals are a mess to me, so if I messed up please tell me so :) Hope you enjoyed this week's chapters that I do not own!**

* * *

><p>XXX<br>Piper

Everything about him was the same as her dreams. His hair was thick and brown. His tan and wind burned skin stretched over muscles made him looked outdoorsy and active, and there was an actual burn on the side of his face. His jaw was square and his eyes were a gorgeous warm brown colour.  
>She was pretty sure she swore out loud.<br>"Yeah, I know what you mean, check those captors." Percy said, which made Piper realise that he did _not_ know what she meant in her head.  
>But she looked at the captors and cocked her head to her side. They were all women, but nor Amazon, nor Hunter. Besides, they didn't seem organised enough to be either of those groups. They were dressed way too pretty to fight, wearing white blouses, pastel cardigans, skirts, tank tops, sandals, Mary Janes… Why would you even wear that if you were in the middle of a clearing holding a really-not-hard-to-look-at soccer player captive, anyways?<br>But they did look good, if out of place. They went from red curls to black waves, pale complexion to rosy cheeks, tall, short, blue eyed, green eyed… But they were all beautiful.  
>Piper was so beyond glad she wasn't with Valdez and instead with a guy who was still heartbroken because his girlfriend had gone nuts at random and one who was taken and pretty much in totally unchangeable love, or else she'd have been screwed.<br>"I told you- I know nothing of this American camp!" He said again. There was a German accent to his voice.  
>"You liar!" One of the women said. Her sword tip swung through the air and landed just in front of his throat. Piper moved forwards but Percy held her back.<br>"Wait, we'll be outnumbered." Jason said.  
>"They're in heels! I am <em>so<em> good at creaming people in heels!" Piper pleaded.  
>"Tell us now, or my sword will tell the story of a little German boy who got on the wrong island." The woman said. She had corkscrew curls like Hazel, and a Mediterranean complexion, her eyes were deep cocoa brown and she wore a yellow and white sundress.<br>"Don't," Jason said gripping her under arm so she wouldn't go. "What is it with you? You're never this rash." Jason said.  
>"She's going to freaking decapitate him." Piper hissed at him.<br>"No, they need him for something." Jason insisted. "He's safe. She's only playing scary."  
>"She's wearing heels Jason. I doubt she knows how to interrogate a victim properly." Piper said.<br>"I know nothing!" Their captive said again.  
>"You know everything there is to know!" She said again.<br>"I was not praetor in California!"  
>Percy and Piper turned to Jason who tensed.<br>"I have never set a foot out of Europe! Either stop playing with your food or leave me!" The guy insisted.  
>"Cannibals," Percy whispered. Piper slapped his arm.<br>"To die maybe," one of the pale black-haired women said. A few others snickered.  
>"What have you done to the others?" He asked again.<br>"Oh, this and that," the same woman said. "Most of them are dead if that's what you're asking. One of those little blond boys gave quite a good chase."  
>The guy propelled himself forwards and thrashed like a demon.<br>"He was seven years old!" He yelled. "He was seven years old you heartless monsters!"  
>The woman talking to him opened her mouth and for a second Piper thought she turned into a lion because her teeth were sharp and she roared like a feline. The pure force pushed his down.<br>Suddenly Piper realised what smelled so bad; the women.  
>"I think I just figured out why there's all this perfume," Piper said. She knew there was a connecting myth, she knew it; she just couldn't figure it out… It was an island, and there'd been a stop somewhere… Was it the Odyssey? No, Odysseus hadn't been the one to deal with this…<br>"Then tell us more about the other praetors: Daniela Milano, or Seth Donaldson perhaps."  
>"I am a son of Rome, and I will not betray my heritage, or my country." He said. He got slapped across the cheek, but he barely budged when the contact was made. His face barely changed.<br>"This is bigger than your spin-off camp, or your little nation," the woman hissed.  
>"I am loyal to both," he said, the red mark on his cheek slowly fading, his gaze just as strong as before.<br>"We have to do something," Piper urged on.  
>"We need an opening."<br>"I will godsdamn make an opening." Piper said.  
>"Piper, calm down," Jason said. "Look, I think I remember this myth. A legionnaire told me, when she found out my name was 'Jason' like the Argonaut. I must've heard the Argonautica a million times. This is the island of Lemnos. A bunch of women here were super rude to Venus, so she made them smell really bad for their husbands to be disgusted enough to leave them."<br>"You're kidding," Percy said.  
>"No way," Jason said. "But they do have their violent tendencies; they felt betrayed and killed all their husbands."<br>"I doubt he's married to any of them, but gosh his chances aren't looking good." Piper said. For some reason, the boy's face was making her edgy. Maybe it was recognising him from her dream, Piper didn't know for sure. But she desperately wanted him out of those chains.  
>"For all we know," Percy muttered.<br>"Shut up," Piper said. The woman in the sundress drew a long knife.  
>"Do you know what this is? A blade that can cut through diamonds and stone and solid gold. It will <em>destroy<em> you if you don't cooperate with our plans, or for the greater plan of Gaia."  
>The three of them looked at each other.<br>"Quick brainstorm: Gaia gave them those teeth or was that in the myth?" Percy asked.  
>"Gaia," Piper nodded. "Probably because this guy isn't easily intimidated, he's just brave."<br>"Should we go get the others?" Jason asked them.  
>"No, we don't have time." Percy said.<br>The blade teased they guy's throat.  
>"So what is it?"<br>"Death," the boy said, "Is preferable to betrayal."  
>The woman made an angry roaring sound (real roaring sound) and she raised the blade like a baseball bat ready to score a homer.<br>Piper panicked and she did the rashest thing she'd ever, ever done.  
>She jumped from the bushes and fell to the ground in a pile of limbs and person.<br>The woman hesitated, and Piper pretended to see stars. She hoped Percy and Jason would catch on.  
>"What in the world… Sophie, investigate!" The woman in the sundress said. But she lowered her blade, keeping a two handed grip.<br>A young woman came towards Piper, blond pixie cut, rosy cheeks, skinny jeans and a green tank top, and silver flats. Piper tried not to gag as she got closer.  
>"She's breathing and conscient, ma'am." The woman who must be Sophie said.<br>"Message…" Piper panted. "From… From Gaia…"  
>The women rushed around Piper, which made the smell a million times worst. Piper wasn't a superficial person no matter how long she'd stayed in the Aphrodite cabin, but the gag reflex was entirely physical.<br>"Move!"  
>The woman in the sundress moved past the others and knelt over Piper.<br>"Who are you? What news do you bring from Gaia?"  
>"I… I… Have to tell… everyone… At once…" Piper said. She poured charmspeak into her speech, so they'd even forget to guard their prisoner. They all looked eager to hear her talk more.<br>Between a mass of red curls and a beautiful darker skinned woman with dozens of braids and golden loop earrings, Piper saw Jason and Percy sneaking up and working on untying the boy. She just had to stall and then figure out how to get herself out of there.  
>"Speak, messenger." The woman said. Black kohl lined her eyes, and she seemed more archaic than the rest of them. She must be the leader of these people, which made her Piper's target to impress.<br>"From far… From very far…" Piper said, pretending to be exhausted, weak, and thirsty.  
>"Okay, okay, that doesn't matter…"<br>"Tired… Long travel…" Piper said. "But message…"  
>"Yes, yes, tell us." The woman edged on. "Tell us, or we'll go to the source and you will be killed for not doing your job!"<br>"She said… Lady Gaia said that Rome was weak…" Piper said improvising completely. "You must… Attack Rome…"  
>"Attack Rome?" The leader said. "How? Did she say how?"<br>"She said to… To… To release the Kraken…" Piper said thinking back to the last movie she'd seen at Camp Half-Blood.  
>"Release the Kraken?" The woman echoed in confusion.<br>"Is that code for something Ma'am?"  
>"Gaia said that… Surely her most noble… Noble servants of Lemnos would know…" Piper said playing weak and tired and exhausted and scared.<br>"Would know? Would know what?"  
>"The code?" Someone asked.<br>"What's the Kraken?" Someone asked.  
>"Girl, you lie." The leader said, pale as a sheet now. She might fail. She might let down Gaia and be killed, and her body would be left to rot in the pools of blood left by her likes dying. After what she'd done to that guy, Piper actually couldn't care less. She'd learned that servants of Gaia were rarely real, rarely good, and never deserved to actually be back to life.<br>Suddenly a sword flew over all their heads. Piper caught the glint of bronze off of it before it dropped back into the trees, but she got it. That was Riptide. It was a message from Percy. Luckily the women of Lemnos were too wrapped up in Piper's voice to notice. But now she had to worry about her second problem: getting out of here.  
>"I don't lie… I serve the Great Gaia… I am her… Prized messenger… A demigod from the Camps in America… If I die she will be… Upset…"<br>"She's pretty," one of them said. "It might be true."  
>"It's probably true, she's very pretty."<br>Piper nearly yelled out something about being more than a pretty face, but she shut up. If superficial was the way to go to live right now, so be it.  
>"Water…" She begged. "Need… Water…"<br>About five of the women got up to go rush to wherever their camp or village was to get Piper water. This was her moment, they'd notice the prisoner.  
>She got up and ran. A hand closed around her hair, and she was thrown back. She pushed herself off to knock the woman off balance as much as she was. She rolled off the woman's body, gagging, and got up, drawing Katoptris.<br>"A trick! A trick!" Someone yelled.  
>"Seize her! If she really is from one of the Camps, then Gaia will reward us greatly! Maybe she'll rid us of this stench earlier than planned!" The leader said.<br>"No, don't attack, don't attack!" Piper said.  
>They stopped and thought about it, so Piper knew she had to keep their attention fast. Charmspeaking someone not to attack took a lot of power, like, Medea-sized power- which Piper did not only not-have but didn't want either.<br>"Your stench- it's Aphrodite who cursed you, isn't it?" Piper said since she couldn't think of a better stall for time. Time for Jason or Percy to come in with some amazing superpower and save the day, because good gods did she need help.  
>"Wretched goddess," the leader said with a locked jaw. "She thinks that just because we don't respect her cult she can take it away from us!"<br>"Beauty?" Piper asked. "You're all beautiful."  
>"Thank you dearest, not that that'll save you. No, not that cult. Beauty we do well enough."<br>"Love," Piper said. Her voice had gotten quiet. "You didn't respect love."  
>"Love is not a power Piper McLean, it's a side-on for the human heart to feed off and get poisoned with," the woman said. "I know you now, I recognise you now. Piper McLean, isn't it? Gaia said to watch for you. She said you could be quite pesky; but you should understand exactly what we're talking about."<br>"No," Piper said thinking of Annabeth running on adrenaline for eight months looking for Percy, Reyna giving Jason a kiss on the cheek before running off to save Rome, Katie and Travis who were so dang _in love_ without admitting it, the way Frank looked at Hazel and would do anything for her… If that wasn't power, then Piper didn't want to wield any weapon. "I don't."  
>"Love, love, love. Yes, it's beautiful and wonderful and everyone loves those twenty-first century plastic candy boxes. But what hurts more, a deep wound or a broken heart? Or is there no difference?"<br>"The broken heart is worth it, that's your dang difference," Piper said under her breath, her mind centered around Jason. Yes, she hadn't _wanted_ things to happen like they'd happened. What girl would? But she got the bigger picture and she'd gotten friends out of it. Friends out of finding out about Rome, even the hard way; Frank, Reyna, Quinn, Hazel, Gwen, Bobby, Dakota, and Jason himself.  
>"Believe what you will." She said. "But trust me Piper McLean; love is a menace. Especially in your case. Aphrodite has been working on you for centuries and centuries, trying to line your stars to form her perfect little love story achievement. You're stuck in a paradox and you'll never get out."<br>She had to be talking about Jason. So far, that was the biggest note in her love life. Paradox of what? Falling in and then out of love with someone who could never be hers? Not only was that depressing, but it could not be true. Piper kind-of believed in karma; that your life couldn't be completely crud if you did good things. That a breakthrough would be due and real at some point. Maybe she wasn't Mother Teresa and she was human and flawed, but Piper wasn't an evil person.  
>"I'm not in a paradox," Piper said.<br>"Oh yes you are," she said. "I could go on right now. You're not free to love who you want in life, you're free to love who's next to you on the big chess game Aphrodite has us all on. How were I and my fellows supposed to respect that? To respect love? It's a carefully planned diagram and game, hidden behind soft words and bouquets as gifts."  
>"Weren't you all married?" Piper said, getting frustrated now.<br>"Not by choice, no. Ancient Greece was all about forced marriages and affairs and women being thrown around from man to man until someone took us. Not until _we_ took someone. Not until two people were happy together, that was rare. But that's love. It's pretty on the outside, but rotten, ugly, painful and leach-like on the inside. A bit like your mother dearest."  
>"Don't you speak about my mother that way!" Piper said.<br>She figured any time now the women of Lemnos would get sick and tired of hearing her talk and they'd just stab her. She could maybe handle three if they weren't the best sword-fighters, but there were just too many of them.  
>"I'll speak about your filthy mother the way that I like!"<br>Piper lowered Katoptris and slapped -open-handedly, hard palm, sound effects- the leader.  
>"You don't smell like roses either," Piper said. "So I suggest you bite your tongue."<br>The woman shot Piper a look that made her regret the slap.  
>"Kill her," she said.<br>Piper raised Katoptris and caught the first blade on that one. She kicked up and nailed her opponent in the chest. She felt a hand on her shoulder and let her instincts go over anything else. She fell to the floor and army-crawled between a pair of legs and rolled away. She arrived at the foot of another woman of Lemnos, but she managed to punch her in the shins with her middle finger knuckle sticking out a bit, like Quinn had showed her in the legion, before getting up again.  
>There was still a pack of sundresses and cute haircuts and eyes shining in pretty ways.<br>Super. Piper was screwed.  
>Suddenly the wind picked up in a wild fit. Anybody with a skirt panicked and Piper's thin windbreaker and hair flapped like some strange kite, the skin not covered by her jean shorts whipped with icy cold air. She'd read about these; squalls. When the wind suddenly picked up during a storm or something.<br>She smiled.  
>The leader picked her way towards Piper, which is when she stopped smiling.<br>"Seize her! Don't stop- it's just the wind!"  
>"Funny, I didn't know wind came in blond and blue eyed," she heard Percy say as he bounded from the forest and slashed Riptide through someone's heart about as coldly as a psychopath. But every half-blood was at that point right then; Gaia's servants weren't like mortals or demigods, who were living their lives and had a right to live. They were cheating death, and they had to be stopped before they stopped Olympus. And then those thoughts made you guilty because you thought of Hazel.<br>That's when Jason dropped from the sky and managed to kick someone down and take down another woman by clutching onto her shoulder blades and pushing down.  
>She was too stuck watching these two fights and trying to figure out why they'd come back that she'd paused for a second- which was a second more than any demigod should.<br>The leader was about to swing her sword in a motion that would've been the last thing Piper would see. It sounded cheesy, but Piper's arms had gone into mush and she was stuck. Time slowed down like in those movies.  
>Suddenly something pushed into her like a ram trying to burst a fortress' doors. She landed on a tree root jumping out of it and making her shoulder hurt, and a rock was pushed into her leg- but she was alive.<br>The boy had pushed her and he was still keeping her pinned, his knife blocking the woman in the sundress' sword. He turned to look at Piper. She saw his eyes closer than she ever had, she could describe the brown better- a kind of dark colour that made her think of that Belgian chocolate everybody seemed to get at Christmas time. And then she saw it again- that ring, except now it was hanging around his neck on a thin, thin gold chain. It was the same band of gold.  
>"Sorry if I'm too heavy for you. Are you alright?"<br>"Never been better," Piper said. She'd only heard him talk once before today, and that was in German. She could hear his German accent. He grinned.  
>"I'm Tommy by the way," he said.<br>"Piper." She said. He got to his feet and fought off the leader. Piper got up too, she wasn't hurt. She starred at Tommy for a few seconds before slicing Katoptris through the air and cutting one of the women through the shoulder.  
>Jason and Percy were fighting together, attracting the women of Lemnos to them like they had their own gravity.<br>Piper slashed and hacked, and she saw that Tommy had her back.  
>"You fight in a legion?" She asked.<br>"Yeah right," he said like the idea was ridiculous. "Go meet the other two, in the center," he said.  
>She and Tommy met up with the two sons of the Big Three in the center after making a few bodies of their own drop.<br>"So I realise that the adrenaline might've been pumping a bit too high considering I was kind-of in danger and you guys have save-the-martyr instincts like nobody else; but how did you all plan to get out of here?" Piper asked.  
>"That was all his part to play!" Percy said, nodding his head at Tommy and removing a sword through a brunette's pierced blouse. "We figured out how to get away."<br>"What?" Piper asked wondering what the heck this was about.  
>Just then Jason grabbed Tommy and Percy each by a shoulder, Tommy grabbed Piper's hand, and they shot up in the air over the treetops.<br>"Dust devils, eh?" Percy said. "I knew you'd come in handy, Grace."  
>"So far you're too dehydrated to help, Jackson." Jason teased back.<br>"A dust devil? Why didn't we just do this the first time? I could've sat there innocently and dying and you could've just popped that sucker-pole out of the ground and onto the ship. I could've just said 'Oh no- the gods are interfering- they know I'm here- I must escape- I will be back!'" Piper complained.  
>"Well if you'd have stuck around for eight seconds of planning we could've come up with that." Jason said. "How about you give us a five second head start next time you're in the mood to do that?"<br>"Make it two, and you've got yourself a deal," Piper said to feed the sarcasm. Hopefully it'd give him energy to keep flying. She doubted the women of Lemnos would notice if they landed now- which was a high likely option considering the effort flying took. With memories of how to fly, tips and tricks, and loads of newly acquired free-time to train, Jason had gotten better at flying, but it was still obviously exhausting him to have two guys about his height and Piper on the same dust devil as him.  
>Piper had read about those. There were bursts of air currents or winds that shot upwards. Usually they were harmless, but Jason and Percy could make Jell-O and dental floss harmful if he put his mind and creativity to it.<br>"Jason, we can walk," she told him once she saw his face getting red.  
>"No I'm good," he said. "I've got this. I've carried heavier loads."<br>He insisted and they soared over the tree tops, then over the golden sand, and over crystal blue water until they got to where the Argo II was waiting for them. The figures and crates on deck grew closer. Josie seemed to be talking to Hazel about something, Frank and Leo were playing rock-paper-scissors-sword-light saber-gladus-spear-knife-machete-machinne gun, Annabeth and Quinn were reading, Ella and Tyson were just lying in the sun…  
>Finally Jason landed and he stumbled for a bit, Tommy catching his arm.<br>"Thanks," Jason said. He closed his eyes for a second to gather his wits and get rid of the black spots in his eyes, and then stood tall as usual.  
>"Okay, I'm good." He said.<br>"Oh thank gods, now we may move and the earth can start spinning again." Percy said.  
>"Shut up," Jason said.<br>The others were coming forwards and frowning.  
>"Percy- what is it with you and bringing back newbies?" Leo said. "That's not cool. Well, it is, but it creeps me out and it's not good for them."<br>"I thought there was destiny and stuff though." Josie said.  
>"There is," Hazel promised.<br>"Piper found him," Percy said. "He's… Umm…"  
>"Thomas Rosenberg," he said.<br>"Well, nice to meet you Thomas." Frank said. "I'm Frank."  
>He inclined his head and shook Frank's head like a roman. Between that and his fighting skills, Piper was getting suspicious. Jason didn't recognise him- which meant he'd never gone to Camp Jupiter. But he'd obviously been somewhere where they taught Romans how to be.<br>Everyone passed by introductions, Josie tried to convince him her name was Janet, and Piper offered Tommy food and water since he'd just been a captive. He accepted the water but declined the food as Leo steered the Argo II away. Piper brought him both anyways.  
>Everyone sat down on the deck and let him finish the chicken and rice ration Piper was ready to cut out of her own if it came to that (although she didn't think it would), while Jason and Percy told the story.<br>"Thomas, may I ask you a question?" Annabeth asked.  
>"Oh, please- I go by Tommy." He said.<br>"Tommy then," she said. "The two boys said you knew how to fight. How is that if nobody has ever seen you at Camp Jupiter or Half-blood? Do you even know all that much about demigods?"  
>Tommy looked up at her.<br>"You mean… Nobody in America has figured it out yet?" He said.  
>"What do you mean?" Frank asked.<br>"You know, if you're Egyptian, that's really alright." Percy said super zen, like he'd been thinking this through and had come to peace with the idea of a bunch of new kids jumping on the boat with their new brand of gods.  
>"What? No, no, I'm German." Tommy said. "And Roman. I'm guessing here is a split; some of you are Greek like Percy, some of you are Roman like Jason."<br>"Wow he's got this nailed down." Leo whisper-shouted.  
>"What do you mean 'nobody in America has figured it out yet'?" Annabeth asked again, craving answers like a pregnant woman craved pickles.<br>"Just that it's a bit egocentric of you to believe that the gods only dwell in America, especially considering most of ancient history in in Europe. Because really, we demigods are there too."


	58. XXXI Annabeth, Piper

**I'm here!I'm here, I swear! I didn't forget, but I was simply sick and tired and not in the mood. So I decided to stop freaking out about reviewing the story and editing and replying to comments and just lie down with my eyes closed and listen to music with one ear and to my family with the other. **

**Also, I got a lot of comments on about people worrying about me not putting Percy/Annabeth back together and so forth, and so forth. So I just wanted to say: I'm not pulling another Fire's Revenge here like I did last time I wrote sequels to RR's actual books. I'm not going to make it that-totally-tragic and be a wrecking ball on everyone's lives. That said, rough things are going to happen, but don't give up on yours truly. Kay? Cool? Chapter.**

* * *

><p>XXXI<p>

Annabeth

She was fighting back this really really strong urge to scream because Tommy was so incredibly _right_. Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Anne Bonny, Ellen Terry! European demigods who'd changed their country or even the whole world, and had all been born and raised in said continent. She'd never thought about it before- she'd assumed they'd stayed hidden, or the amount of monsters was lower in Europe since the gods weren't there anymore and they hadn't even realised they were demigods.

"Okay, say that again in very clear and specific terms." Leo said.

"Demigods in Europe aren't a foreign thing," Tommy repeated. "That's where we started. It's normal that some of us still live there and besides; most demigods are from single-parent families. Do you think our parents had the means to send us to and from inexact locations in America? What if we got hurt or died? They would never know. What if we never found camp? Do you think they even had the desire to ship us off in airplanes? Besides, we can't be that far from home, and your country seems to speak uniquely English with some Spanish mixed in. That doesn't work for the Germans, Hungarians, Polish, French, Swedes, Swiss, Russians, Italians, Norwegians, Portuguese, Spaniards… You get the idea."

"Nobody realised the gods went back to Europe, apart from the mainland Greece and Rome." Percy said.

"No, it makes sense." Josie said. "Gods get homesick, come back, meet someone, poof- baby demigod at your service."

"More or less," Tommy said. Piper was thinking that it came from the 'less'.

"We realised the gods traveled," Annabeth said. "Just not to…"

"Have kids? None of them probably mean to. Ever. But especially not in Europe. But it still happened every now and then, and so we came up with a camp."

"A camp?" Percy asked. "What kind of camp?"

"A camp like any other. Tents stationed around a bonfire with a water pump and a small armoury and forge." Tommy said.

"Wait, wait- you lived like some people camped except 24/7?" Josie asked.

"Yes," Tommy said. "And I quite enjoyed it, so please don't talk that way."

"No, I was just thinking how flipping better than newspaper on a street that sounds," Josie said. Tommy looked at her.

"Where are you from?"

"Spain." She said. Tommy said something in Spanish.

"You speak Spanish?" Piper asked.

"And German. And French. Polish. Italian. Latin and English too, of course. Languages seem to rub off on everyone in Europe." Tommy said. "I had friends from all over."

"Wait- you keep saying _enjoyed, _or _had," _Piper said. "What do you mean?"

Tommy's face became undeniably darker.

"That's a hard question," he said.

"Then there must be a hard answer." Piper said. He looked up at her.

"You're feisty, aren't you?" He asked. Piper kept his gaze.

"What was your first clue?" Leo asked.

"When she jumped out of the bushes and pretended to pass out," Tommy said. "Anyways, something terrible happened. I don't know how to explain it, or exactly what…" He sighed.

"Our camp operates without the gods. They're done in Europe. They don't come around often, and even more rarely at the camp. But there is one goddess who does, and another who comes regularly, even if neither of them have children at the camp."

"Diana?" Frank guessed, probably since Artemis had no children.

"Of course not, she's with the hunters." Jason said. He was probably thinking of Thalia again, which meant he must have had a dream about the prisoners. Annabeth would ask later, she knew that Quinn was dying to know what was going on with Jedediah Adams.

"Minerva and Vesta," Tommy said. "Vesta tends to our fires which gives us one thing less to worry about and Minerva… Minerva is our protector. Our patron, one may say. Actually, both of them are. If we honour any gods it wouldn't be Jupiter who rules everything but leaves us in the corner, or Mars whose great wars we only get the after-shock of. It'd be those two. The Camp is actually on territory once protected by _Legio I Minervia, _her sacred legion.

Minerva's protection always came to us by a magic item; an olive tree."

"Her attribute," Quinn whispered.

"You must know the story of what the Greeks saw in the olive tree." Tommy said.

"The undersides of the olive tree's leaves were grey, and whenever the wind blew, the bottoms were seen. The Greeks said the olive tree was like having a million of Athena's eyes watching you." Annabeth said. She often got annoyed when, during a story, someone had to stop from telling her new things to repeat the old.

He nodded.

"That was exactly our olive tree. Sometimes the leaves turned up without any wind. It grew right between the kitchen tent and the make-shift armoury, and we always had someone protecting it. The little kids would climb all over it. Sometimes we ate the olives when food was scarce." Tommy said. "As long as we had Minerva watching us, the scent was covered and our location was saved."

"Gaia destroyed it, didn't she?" Jason said. Tommy thought for a few seconds, which made Piper think that this one was going to be hard to explain.

"It sunk into the ground. My friends Marie-Pierre and Estefanìa were on guard. Marie bent down to grab Lars who was running away from me, and it just sunk like an anchor. Through solid ground as if it was growing backwards. We dug to try and figure it out; Marie-Pierre was terrified that she'd done something wrong, the little kids were scared half to death, the older ones were trying to keep them away just in case. We found nothing. After a few hours, Camp was surrounded. The monsters ripped apart everything there was in there; our tents, our equipment, half-bloods even…"

Tommy's jaw hardened.

"You don't have to keep telling us," Piper said kindly.

"I do," Tommy said. "Someone needs to know about this camp. It burnt down when Gaia set it on fire. Well, I'm assuming it was Gaia. Her voice sounded from everywhere and said that since my world was falling apart, so would the rest of it. She addressed herself directly to me.

It soon became clear that saving camp wouldn't be possible- we had to evacuate. I was helping Schmuel- a little boy from Poland, the nicest kid you'll ever meet- out, and holding Lars' hand in the other hand –he was Swede, he was trying to teach me Swedish, it was hilarious- when the women of Lemnos appeared. They took the two kids. I drew my sword and managed to kill the one who had Schmuel, and then they knocked me out from behind. I woke up tied up where Jason, Percy and Piper found me. They'd been interrogating me for days by the time you three came along. They thought I was praetor, but that's not how things worked."

"It wasn't?" Jason asked.

"No. Not everybody's a roman in the world." Tommy said. "We were a hybrid camp."

"And there were no fights?" Percy asked.

"Of course there were fights, there were twenty kids living with each other, gods damn it, it was a miracle if there were no fights."

"No, I mean, Greek or Roman related fights?" Percy asked. That seemed to blow him away considering the trouble _they'd _gotten.

"We had to _survive. _We got our own food, made it, and treated our wounded, found our own water and kept our fires going when Vesta wasn't around, taught the kids, watched the younger ones, trained ourselves… Why would we fight? We all had that common goal." Tommy said.

And it made so much more sense than everything anybody in the states had thought of during their time there. Annabeth looked at Tommy under a new light. Survival and the race and wild grasp for it had made enemies friends. She remembered Luke, Thalia and her, running across the country. Maybe it was something like that. The drive of survival. It'd pushed her to do some pretty amazing things for a seven-year-old, and Thalia and Luke to do some pretty amazing things for thirteen and fourteen year olds.

"What about the others who lived? We're not that far from Spain at least…" Percy said. Annabeth wanted to snap at him that they didn't have time to go back and try to latch on to the thin chance of finding a demigod _again, _but she shut up because it would be insensitive to Tommy, and primarily because he was already hurt and it was already her fault and if she did more she'd feel the shreds of her heart torn to ribbons and she'd crack.

"I don't know about them." Tommy said. "I don't even know about Schmuel and Lars who were right next to me when they got me, the women of Lemnos wouldn't tell me." His eyes had hardened and now he looked exactly like Jason or Percy would if this happened to their respective Camp. Like he had his people to take care of, but in Tommy's case, he'd failed, and he hadn't had a chance to win it either.

"That's harsh," Jason said, "about your camp. I'm sorry."

"I would be more afraid for yours," Tommy said. "These women of Lemnos are after the ones in America; they believe those will shake the gods more than the Camp in Europe."

"We're already afraid for our camps," Percy said.

XXX

Piper

Tommy listened to their story quietly, and that was the main difference between him and Josie. He already knew about gods and scents and monsters, which made it a whole lot easier. There were also about twenty other reasons why Tommy and Josie were different. Tommy seemed more quiet and grounded while Josie was an open-mouthed blob of sarcasm, comebacks and bluntness.

"So long story short, this is why we're on a flying ship, care to join us and possibly risk your life and soul?" Percy said.

"You are _so _indelicate." Annabeth said.

"Yes, compared to you who is always so good at everything she ever does." Percy spat back.

Piper sighed, hoping this wouldn't start it.

"Guys…" She said.

"Sorry Piper, I didn't mean to provoke Percy, I seem to forget that he has only reached the maturity of a three year old." Annabeth said, standing up and leaving. Percy swore under his breath and walked up the railing and jumped over, into the sea. They didn't even hear a splash, as per usual.

There was a general frustrated sigh and everybody else scattered. Tommy looked confused.

"If you don't mind me asking what's going on with..?"

"Percy and Annabeth? They broke up, like, days ago, after this long thing of 'oh she loves me? Wait-no, now she hates me. Oh wait, she does still love me' and then getting together last summer, and making out together- or at least I assume so- no wait, they did, they totally did, and then being separated for months." Josie said. "They went from PDA to, well, this acting-like-three-year-olds thing they've got going on."

"Alright then." Tommy said, although Piper wasn't sure how much of Josie's spitfire babble he understood. Piper had no idea how Josie knew it either. _Wait- psychic._

"Do you want my flashcards to remember who's who here? Because it's fudging more complicated than a soap opera, trust me on this." Josie said.

"I'm okay thanks." Tommy said. "Thank you for saving me."

"No problem, it's our duty to fellow soldiers." Jason said.

"Josie didn't even say thank you yet." Frank teased.

"I'm not quite sure if you deserve it yet, I'm suspending judgement." Josie defended very categorically.

"Were you the praetor in the American camp?" Tommy asked him. "I know there was at least one, the women of Lemnos thought it was me for some reason. There's something the praetor of Rome knows that the women of Lemnos want to know."

Jason nodded.

"Then Percy, but it seems that once this is over Percy won't be staying around Camp Jupiter, so I suppose it'll be me again."

"It will Grace, don't be all noble and modest." Piper said, holding her leg straight as Hazel disinfected up a scratch that was apparently deep enough to get infected.

"But that could also refer to Reyna, who's been praetor for months." Jason said. "She's been the one who was there at all times, so assuming it's her…" He stopped talking. "I hope it's not, she's in enough trouble as it is."

The second Hazel tightened the bandage and Piper thanked her, she was off again. Part of her heart squeezed because of how worried Jason was. She'd come to terms with the fact that they wouldn't work out together, that Reyna was really important to him, et cetera- but Piper didn't like those terms, she only respected them.

She changed her trail of thought. Now she knew Tommy's name and where the heck he was from, but she was doubtful that 'European Camp heads-up' was the reason there were dreams. Nobody had gotten dreams as a heads up for 'Californian Camp that also happens to be Roman'.

And he still had that ring…

_I will find your master._

She had to corner him, but not here. Alone. Although she wasn't sure when that would happen because privacy was about as common on the Argo II as lice on a fish. You had to lock yourself in the bathroom and make sure everyone knew you were taking your shower time so that nobody walked in- and Piper wasn't going to do that because she feared the jokes Frank and Leo and Josie would come up with.

The occasion sprang up at dinner, when Quinn had fallen asleep at the end of the deck during a conversation with Josie and Hazel. She and Piper were supposed to make supper.

"I can fill in for her," Tommy said. "It's the least I can do."

Piper nearly smiled.

"Alright," Piper said. "Come on, I'll show you our kitchenette. It's the envy of motels everywhere."

They went downstairs and only Leo and Frank were there. Leo seemed to be explaining Frank how to fix a sword of some sort, but they were very much into their talking.

"Whoa- Piper's gonna cook?" Leo gasped.

"It's the Mayan apocalypse!" Frank said.

"Run!"

"Hide!"

"Do something good so you'll get into Elysium!"

"Valdez- build a bunker, build a bunker!" Frank said.

"I will throw a pan at you if you don't," Piper threatened. The two of them took off.

"What was that about? You don't cook often on this ship?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, I do." Piper said. "I'm just kind-of a tomboy. Nobody expected me to have any expertise in cooking, but as a matter of fact I do. I used to make breakfast for my dad all the time on Sundays, whenever he slept for ten seconds longer than me. I think sometimes he even humoured me by pretending to be asleep. Eventually I grew out of 'Froot-Loops' and got sophisticated."

"Well then I hope I'm not too incompetent," Tommy said. "I've sort-of made-do with things boiled or grilled at Camp, so…"

"Please, I'm sure you'll be fine compared to the others." Piper said.

"Your mother's Aphrodite isn't she? Greek goddess of beauty?" Tommy asked.

"Yes," Piper said. "Why? How did you know?"

"No reason." He said quickly. A red tint appeared on his cheeks. "Just… You mentioned you lived with your dad."

"Oh. Who's your godly parent?" Piper asked. "Or were you not claimed…"

"I was," he said, "The son of Victoria, Roman goddess of victory. Doesn't make be invincible, as you know, but I can excel in a few things."

"She was the equivalent of Nike," Piper nodded.

"You're good with your equivalents for someone who hasn't known about both for long." Tommy complimented.

"I'm the meditator. I was when we were back in Rome, too. I figured it'd be good to learn a lot about the Romans. Besides, Annabeth helped."

Tommy nodded. "What's being made?"

"I think tonight is _penne Napolitana_. Which is fancy-talk for those tube-like noodles over there, in the cupboard, covered in the tomato sauce in that can," She said pointing towards the can in question.

For a while it was just boiling noodles and cranking open the tomato sauce and heating that up. Tommy watched the noodles looking uninterested but doing it anyways (which beat half the ADHD kids on this ship). Piper imagined him at a camp, in the middle of the woods, doing the same thing. Maybe with that girl Dani who –from the dreams- seemed to be his best friend, or the two little boys he'd mentioned, Schmuel and Lars buzzing around him.

"Tell me about camp," Piper blurted. He looked up.

"My camp? It wasn't much."

"It sounds amazing," Piper said. "People from everywhere? You picked up French, Italian and Polish there. That seems pretty amazing."

"It rubs off," Tommy said. "In the crowd of people if you couldn't talk the first one's language you moved on to the next and eventually you'd find someone you could communicate with. My friend Daniela, well, Dani, could speak five languages, plus Latin and Greek, plus English."

"That's incredible. It seems to be a reoccurring theme for demigod camps; the cast of characters."

"That's what demigods are," Tommy said. "A cast of characters. Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

Tommy thought for a second. "It was harsh sometimes. We found and made our own food, got our hands on our own water and boiled it so it was healthy, slept in tents, had few clothing and possessions, treated our wounded and sick, washed everything in creeks and had to teach ourselves everything we had to know."

Piper thought of Camp Half-Blood and the nymphs strolling in with platters every meal, or Camp Jupiter where your favourite meal landed in front of you.

"But it was home." Tommy said. "For a long, long time it was home for me, and I'm not sure if I could've lived any other way."

"How long?" Piper asked.

"I was…" He seemed to be trying to think hard. "Nine, I think."

"_Nine?"_

"I could barely speak English," he said. "And my accent is still as thick as a thorn bush."

"Wow… That's… A long time…" Piper said.

"I suppose."

"How did you learn math and geography and all that, then? Have you learned it?"

"There was a daughter of Athena from Norway back then, who taught us everything she thought we had to know. I could read and write and do simple math when I got to Camp, and she just taught us a bit more. She moved on eventually, left camp three years later to try and make a real life in the real world."

"Have you heard from her since?" Piper asked out of curiosity.

"No," Tommy said. "But that's not rare. We weren't exactly easy to find. When someone left they never came back, even if sometimes we knew they were alive. And since we lost our teacher, others have shared knowledge about this and that. But nobody knows it all quite like Agnetha did."

"It seems… Nice in a way. Cool. I'm not sure if I could've done it, though."

"I bet you could've." Tommy said.

"Can I ask you about one more thing on that Camp?"

"Of course."

"Where did you get the ring from?"

He froze and looked at her. Piper was scared that she'd stepped an invisible borderline nobody had warned her about. Like she'd just set off a Rube Goldberg machine that led to a cracking point.

"The ring?" He asked.

"Yes." Piper said.

"How do you know about it? Do you know about the poem too?" He asked sounding nervous or excited, his German accent picking up.

"No," she said. "Just the ring, I had dreams about it. The very one that is around your neck." Her heartbeat was becoming quicker as well; she felt so close to answers…

He snapped the chain off his neck.

"It was under my pillow one day. One day when I was a little boy I woke up with my hand tightened around it, under my pillow. There was a note in gold that I've kept ever since, _Find its master _in German, followed by the poem. It burnt with the camp."

"I'm sorry," Piper said. Maybe it wasn't right to talk to him about a camp he'd just lost. He'd just been through a lot. But a part of Piper told her to keep pushing; he had to know as much as she did.

"It doesn't matter. I know it by heart." Tommy said, referring to the lost note and not the lost camp, the lost home.

"Really?" Piper said.

"I have an incredible memory," he said.

_She will dream_

_He will search_

_The sun will gleam_

_The boat will lurch_

_And deep inside_

_There's so much to find_

_But so much they already know_

_So much, much so._

The words haunted Piper. She felt like she should know it. They made her think back to Jason's desperate attempts to explain his memory loss. Like the word was at the tip of his tongue but he couldn't remember it, or there was an empty pouch inside his brain where he knew he should know but just didn't.

"Wow," she said for fault of another word. Tommy nodded, took the chain off, and dropped it on the counter.

"So what do you know about the ring?" He asked.

"Nothing," Piper said. "I started getting these dreams. Mostly of you, just walking around camp, or playing soccer."

"Soccer?" He asked.

"Soccer," Piper repeated. "You know… The goals, and the red and yellow cards, with the black and white ball…"

"Oh!" He said. "Football!"

"Nuh-uh, football is with quarterbacks and the NFL and brown balls that don't look like balls," Piper said.

"You're talking about American football." He said.

"And you're talking about European football," Piper replied. She had to smile at the squabble. "Anyways, _that. _The last dream I had involved the ring. You were in a tent, looking at it. You said _Ich finde dein Meister_, which I got Ella to translate for me. That was it. Not even a week later, here we are."

"I remember that," Tommy said nodding. "I was losing hope. Nobody new had come to Camp for a while and I'd have to get out to find the master, without any idea where to start."

"Well thank the gods you didn't. You'd never have come on the ship." Piper said.

"I suppose." He said. "So maybe it _is _a good thing."

"Can I see it?" Piper asked.

"Careful- before you touch it I should warn you, it… It's special…"

"Special?" Piper asked.

"You… You wouldn't believe me. Here."

Tommy took her left hand in his and slipped the ring on her index. When he let go, Piper was nearly disappointed. She'd liked the way he'd held her hand. Strong and delicate at the same time.

Anyways, the ring fit well, icy cold to the touch, but other than that nothing happened.

"Do you get it now?" Tommy asked.

"No, not really." Piper said. "What's so special about it?"

Tommy picked up a spare pan used to make eggs and Piper nearly gasped. Her reflection didn't shine back.

"Wh… What?"

"It turns you invisible," Tommy said.

Piper looked down at her hands, but her limbs were out of sight.

"Oh my God," Piper said. "That is so… So Cool!"

She took the ring off her finger, careful to hold it by the chain.

"You can touch it, it's just putting it on that triggers the magic."

She looked up at Tommy. "My gosh, Tommy, what does it mean? Who's the master?"

"If I had to say," Tommy said. "I'd say it was someone here; one of the seven greatest half-bloods alive. And if I had to bet any money, I'd say it were you."

Piper cocked her head.

"The poem wasn't bogus for entertainment or an air of mystery. Nothing in the demigod world is bogus; not the prophecies, not the people put on your path, or the monsters, or the hurdles." Tommy said. "_She will dream/He will search/The sun will gleam/The boat will lurch. _You had dreams about this ring, and this is the first time I'm on an actual vessel like this. Piper, I think it's yours."

"Mine? Why? What do I have to do with a ring that turns invisible? Annabeth has a baseball cap, but that's a present." Piper said.

"Consider this a present as well," Tommy said. "I won't carry it anymore; I am sure that it's yours. I've never felt like it before, and I've found people whom I thought were the masters. It's yours." He insisted.

"Tommy…"

"It feels right, Piper." Tommy said. "You're the one. I feel it."

"But…"

"If you won't have it then throw it into the sea, because I could travel the world for a thousand years, I wouldn't find another 'master'."

Piper tried to convince him this was absurd, but she stopped in the middle of a sentence upon realising she was trying to convince _herself. _

Tommy got her silence and he closed her fingers around the chain in her palm.

"Put it on or keep it in your pocket if you want." He said. "All I know is that the magic item is yours."

"I don't understand. I know we're on a dangerous mission here, but an invisibility ring?" Piper said.

"It may do more than that, things I couldn't learn from it. Because believe me, I've tried." Tommy said.

Piper looked at the ring. Bands of gold intertwined like braids and flat at the start. If not sophisticated or complex or royal, it definitely looked beautiful and secretive. Like a relic someone had dug up from the sand and sent to a museum, like one of those million year old artefacts that lied every few feet or in the garden shed at Camp Half-Blood.

"Well I guess I'll try some more," Piper said, tying his chain around her neck.

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><p><strong>Delightful Anonymous Reviewers<strong>

**Daedae26- Yes they know about other demigods, but they didn't know about a full-out camp. I'm glad you're enjoying it!**

**Chiquita- No, no I am not kidding you. Please abstain from swearing in the comments. I do not like swearing.**

**Percu jackson is amazing- Drama's going to come, hold your pegasi! Anyways, thanks for the review :)**


	59. XXXI Annabeth, Jason, Leo

**I'm sorry :( I posted on Fanpop but not on here because I was really tired the whole week. Forgive me. You guys just get a lot of text in one day. **

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>XXXI<p>

Annabeth

The noodles were even the faintest trait of overcooked which made Annabeth think that something had been going on downstairs with Tommy and Piper. Then she noticed the chain Tommy had had, tucked under Piper's shirt. She didn't say anything until she and Piper were sharing the sink in the small bathroom, brushing their teeth. You could barely fit more than two people in there, but Annabeth and Piper had figured out how to make it work.

"What's the thing with the chain?" Annabeth asked. Piper looked at her confused for a second and then her eyes brightened in recognition, her fingers grasping at the chain.

"Just… Something Tommy had." Piper said. Piper knew that she had recognised it.

"Why did he give it to you?" Annabeth asked again.

"Just because I asked him about it and he didn't want it anymore."

Annabeth wasn't so gullible, but she didn't say anything. She just spit toothpaste foam out into the sink and ran the tap. She wanted to warn Piper of a million things. That now wasn't a good time to get into a relationship if she liked Tommy or if Tommy liked her. That war was just too violent to try and get something as delicate as love through. It broke humans and lives and things made out of concrete and steel. Love had no chances.

But she slapped herself mentally. That was _her_ story. That was the path fate had given her. Piper was on another road and she could do whatever she wanted. She could take her chances. She could try and bring love through a huge damn of everything-that-was-going-on.

She peaked out the bathroom and saw Percy recounting some story making Hazel laugh. It made him smile and Frank said something that made him laugh too.

Annabeth just couldn't bear it if her friend ended up screwed up and in a mess like she was.

Jason

Everyone basically crashed at the same time. They pulled out one of the spare sleeping bags for Tommy.

"Did you know we were coming? Because if you did- I swear I will break something if you didn't send me a warning letter." Josie said.

"They were spares, in case equipment was damaged." Jason told her.

"Hmm- sure." Josie said, kicking off her sneakers. Hazel caught one that was about to soar midair and lined them at the head of Josie's sleeping bag.

"We risk our lives by being on this ship- please don't add 'shoe projectiles' on the list of dangers." Hazel said.

"My bad," she said.

Tommy thanked them for the help, everyone settled down and someone clapped to turn off the light. Jason heard Annabeth whispering to Quinn, but he'd learned to tune that out because it was a had-to-happen. Tommy propped himself up on his elbows, probably as an instinct of the-guy-in-charge-of-making-sure-everybody-slept, but Jason shook his head at him and whispered back.

"It's okay, they're allowed. Quinn's got sleeping deficiencies, I'll explain in the morning." He said.

"Sorry. At Camp you got dishes duty for talking after curfew."

"That's not nearly as harsh as Camp Jupiter's." Jason said. "I got thrown into a river once."

"Yeah, but we couldn't spare anybody." Tommy said, lying down again. "We couldn't have someone under the weather, that just messed it up for everyone and distraught the little kids."

Jason nodded to himself, it made sense. He couldn't believe all the differences between the Camps. Camp Jupiter had been the one demigod sanctuary he'd over known of, so it was the way, the regulation to him. Camp Half-Blood had been a huge shocker, with its lighter style that let people explore and try everything instead of pointing them towards what they had to know. People propped their elbows on tables and made faces and made bubbles in their sodas with their straws. People poked each other in the ribs as they were taking aim at targets and yelled 'BOO!' at someone climbing the wall. Jason could only _imagine_ how badly Camp Jupiter would punish for that. Those months had been the hardest of his life, trying to adjust and snap himself out of the 'praetor', 'responsibility' frame of mind.

But another camp? Locked in the middle of the woods somewhere in Europe, providing for itself, living in secret, sleeping in tents and tending to fires… That was another kind of intense. Where survival wasn't an instinct, it was a life style. Working was a life style.

Jason couldn't help but respect that incredibly.

Leo

She descended into the dungeon where Cedric awaited. Jane walked to the end of the row of cells, and bent down to fix the strap on her sandal. At the same occasion she dropped something from the red tunic Romans wore under their armour, and picked something up from underneath the pile of straw Cedric was asleep on; an envelope. Jane got up and looked him over, taking in his features. She kissed her fingers and pressed them to his forehead before leaving.

The scene changed. Jane was in a Roman villa like Jason and Reyna slept in. It was one of those moments where Leo identified Jane Stone as his sister. Diagrams and sketches for different machines dressed up the plain walls. Bits of metal and rare spare parts were over her desk on which a little elephant stood. Possibly a prototype for a second Hannibal. Leo looked at the sketch next to it. Same power of elephant- make us for lost one.

Jane herself was sitting on her bed wearing a white night dress; her hair was loose down her back in thick and defined waves. She ripped through the top part of the envelope and pulled out a letter.

_February 15 1865,_

_ Dear Jane,_

_ I hope that the plan with Malinda's fire will work out. I'm sure it will._

_ If your last letter was exact, here's what the Greeks will do for strategy._

_ They won't take the bait. They will split their troops. Very few soldiers will be trying to infiltrate through the two different slave routes your legion isn't guarding. If the legion concentrates on one entrance, you will be able to capture most of them because of your numbers. If you capture and injure most of them, Greek morale will be even lower than if you kill them all. Hopefully low enough for them to bow down, but I don't know. I still haven't thought of another way to stop the war. I know we talked about boycotting last time we had time to talk in person, but that would be hard for you and impossible for me. _

_ I miss you. I know that it's not safe to talk to each other out loud, but I wish I could although I don't think my voice can say 'I love you' quite loud enough for it to feel right. Wow that sounds cheesy, you might gag considering not only are you human, but you're also you. Maybe you should read my letters near one of those vomitoriums now. _

_ Cedric _

Jane smiled and she got up to her desk. She dipped a feather in a beautifully crafted pot of ink and started writing.

_February 16th 1865, _

_Dear Cedric,_

_ Indeed, I had to supress a gag reflex. And Romans don't use a vomitorium that is a myth. A vomitorium is actually a passageway of an amphitheatre. I'm insulted that you'd think that of me, have my people and I not made a good impression on you? (this is of course, sarcasm. I hope you can tell but you may discover that I've gotten a lot better at it since we last spoke. I learned from the best). Only a handful of glutton emperors used a 'vomitorium', we soldiers know much better. _

_ Although I must admit, I miss you too. You were sleeping while I came to pick up and drop off my letter, I didn't even see your eyes._

_ Tomorrow is the trial of the last plan we discussed; with Malinda's fire. _

_ The day after I will lead the diversion into the war camps, and I will give my direct orders not to kill but to maim beyond repair. I know it is hard for you to give orders for your people to go through this. You are brave, Cedric, braver than most. I'm not sure if I could do it if our roles were switched and I was a prisoner in a Greek camp. _

_ I wish there was a way for me to contact your fellow leader and explain everything to her. Then she can help me lead the Romans into traps to balance the losses and victories. I will try and find a way; I will need your help so I can prove that you are in on these plans. I have a patent in mind already._

_ Yours truly and completely,_

_ Jane Stone _

The scene changed again.

"Jane, can I talk to you?" Someone asked. Jane spun around to see the speaker. Her brown hair was braided tightly with her bangs pulled out of her face, and her eyes were dark and hard as stone.

"I'm busy, Malinda." She said.

"Yes, well, you're always busy." The girl who must be Malinda said. Unlike Jane, who kept her hair out of her face and her armour on, Malinda seemed to be more openly girly. She wore a dress and wrapped a Scottish shawl around herself. Red waves of hair fell around her clear face. She didn't seem armed.

Jane stopped and rolled her eyes. "What is it?"

"That Cedric Bailey prisoner, in the cells under the principia…"

"Yes, what about Cedric Bailey?" Jane asked.

"The others were executed months ago." Malinda said. "The Greeks are cutting our rations. We can't afford to feed him for much longer, we might as well throw his body to the Greek camp so they can see their leader. Morale and such. Or we could feed Lupa's wolves."

Leo shivered.

"Let me take the calls on that." Jane said. "Return to your barrack. Rest up, get in armour. I do believe that you're one of the lines of the first cohort following Centurion Matteson on the attack of the Greek camp. Rest up. We'll need your… Special powers for tonight."

Malinda stuck out her palm and a flame built up and crackled in it. Leo felt the small of his back warm up. This was the first time that he saw someone else use fire like that. But Nyssa had told him that the power hadn't been seen since the England fire… But Nyssa was only Greek. Maybe the romans had encountered something like it since.

"Burning down their war camp will do nothing. They will rebuild." Malinda said.

"No, they will move back." Jane said.

"I know. But they will rebuild there."

"You don't know all the layers to this plan, Malinda, there will be archers. We've brought in some half-bloods with no allegiances from the South. Mercenaries, if you will." Jane said.

"What happened to you, Jane?" Malinda said, dropping her hands. "We used to be friends. We used to talk and wash the bandages at the hospital together. You told me everything. Now I barely see you, we don't share secrets, we don't talk. You didn't even tell me about the archers."

"You are a legionnaire now. You will learn the details at the same time as your fellows. I have a higher purpose now, and your tricks don't amuse me anymore." Jane said.

"You mean burning things?" Malinda asked.

"I mean burning people," Jane said. "And you know very well I refer not only to your skills with fire."

Malinda's eyes brightened with anger.

"Jane Stone, I-"

"Don't challenge me, Malinda. Don't make me crack. Don't defy my orders." Jane said coldly and shortly. "And my orders were clear."

Malinda gave a respectful bow that seemed to hurt her, and then she stomped off. Jane sorted out a few more details involving battlefields and inventory and a few maps and theories, she gave a few orders and then she was alone.

She was in her room again, working on a small silver bird of prey, sitting at her desk. She wore boy's clothes and the sleeves were pulled up. Oil stained her wrists and hands.

She put down her patent and tools. She got up and reached for the necklace around her neck; a _probation_ tablet. But not hers; it belonged to Jamie, her brother.

"I will stop this war," she whispered to herself. "I will stop it before another little boy falls."

When Leo woke up he blinked a couple of times to get everything in focus. For a second he got really freaked out about the fact that there was a guy lying between Percy and Jason in their sleeping circle, but then he remembered Tommy and the island and the strange ability of Percy and Piper to show up with new people, and it was all good.

He yawned and saw that everyone was still sleeping, which was a first. He grabbed his bag, went into the bathroom and got dressed, and headed down to the engine room.

Between two pipes, he fished out the beautifully crafted box that he and Brady had found back at Camp Jupiter. He walked back up deck, opened it, and rummaged through the enveloped to find the one dating back to February and read the letters that came after the '16th'.

From what he gathered, Jane had led an attack on the war camps of Greece. Enormous tumbleweeds made out of twine and straw had been lit and rolled into their camps, setting fire to everything. The Greek defences had seen them coming and instead of trying to save their tents (which would've been useless) had formed a phalanx. The battle had been dubbed 'Battle of the Flames' in Rome. Jane said that: "_the only way we saw who we killed was if we got close enough to the camp and tents. It was a battle lit by fire". _

The Greeks had managed to push the Romans back, but they'd lost everything and were force to return and give the land to the Romans who set up lines of guards and fortified the area against their intrusion.

He kept reading. Amongst battle plans and strategies there was always an 'I love you' or 'I miss you', but somehow Leo thought that they were more important than Jane's doodles of battlefields with 'X' and 'O's to mark soldiers, and Cedric's charts of procedures and soldier counts.

The threat of Cedric being executed despite Jane's veto and pledges was becoming graver by the hour. On Jane's behalf: 'I will find more reasons to have the senate keep you around longer, but I fear that I cannot obey them if they decide to veto me. I will have to betray Rome to let you go, for otherwise means betraying myself'. Leo could feel the odds pack up against her.

He read through the letters. Jane had patented an automaton hawk, which must be what he'd seen from his dreams.

'It voyages and acts like a messenger pigeon' Jane explained to Cedric in a letter. 'I will be able to send letters and inform her. Next time I drop some paper off there's going to be one sheet more than usual, and you're going to have to write a letter to your partner. Write it in Greek.'

He read through their strategies without finding any letter to or from Jane and this mysterious Greek leader (which he was calling Old Annabeth).

There weren't, but there were letters involving Cedric and Jane _talking _about her and her strategies. Stuff like, 'according to Genevieve's letters' and 'Genevieve said' and 'the attack will lead the troops to where Genevieve…'

Leo had never been into reading, but he had most of the letters read and piled up on his knees by the time even Quinn woke up. She didn't bother him. She said hello, Leo said hola, she starred at him for a few seconds of confusion in her über-yet-sleepy-brain, asked him if he was actually reading, he said that he absolutely was, and she went to read herself.

The last few letters were in quick scrawl, with no 'I love you's and just the need-to-know information.

_Cedric,_

_ We've pushed your escape too long. I'm doing my best to spare you but the senate grows weary. As Genevieve and her army cut our rations furthermore with more efficiency, they do not want them wasted on you. Malinda is petitioning against me- I fear that I've made a clever speaker my enemy. _

A chill went Leo's back when he remembered Octavian, probably lounging in New Rome and making the third and fifth cohorts do push-ups, getting fed grapes by incredibly hot girls.

_I'll try and dissuade them. The main meeting on your case is tomorrow, but I'm at battle tonight, the whole night. I won't be able to free you. If you do make a run for it, it will be in daylight. Such is not my preferences, but your death is much worst. _

_ Jane_

He found the answer.

_Dear Jane, (I can still use endearment in this mess, aren't I amazing?)_

_ I don't mind, I have a bit of strength left. Enough to use my powers and shroud myself in invisibility and run past the borders of the state, anyways. Genevieve will have_ _to assist me from that point, but I trust your skill and lettering system with her. Feed the hawk a rat for me, will you? I trust you with my life (not because of the rat feeding; for everything else)._

_ Find a decent reason to keep me around. A ransom, some torture for information, or something else involving blood that Romans appeal to. Don't appear attached to me in the senate. That would get you killed. Don't veto anything, that'll just look suspicious. Fight hard tonight, I don't want you dead. _

_ Yours,_

_ Cedric_

_PS- I love you. And we've been so worried and agitated lately that we haven't said it enough and so I love you._

After that Leo found nothing and he was quite puzzled by it.

"What is this? Valdez reading?" Someone new climbing on deck said.

"'Morning," Leo said. "Nice to see you too Zhang. Well, I'm not seeing you, because I've been reading…"

"Quinn, what the Pluto did you do to him? Man, remind me to leave you two unsupervised more often, this is doing good to him."

Tommy moved up next, looking around confused.

"Umm…"

"WUNMC," Leo said. Tommy frowned.

"Pardon?"

"Wake Up Next Morning Confused." Leo clarified. "Happens to me all the time. It's when you forget that your location just changed and you wake up and go 'whoa, what the heck?' Don't worry, we're cool, nobody's going to hurt you. Mostly."

"Alright," Tommy said. "And you know this why, exactly?"

"'Cause Leo's a runaway," he said. He turned around and saw Josie walking up on deck. She stretched her arms above her head. Piper had lent her some of her clothes so Josie now wore her ruined sneakers, jeans from Cabin 8 and a clean t-shirt with some kind of romantic painting copied on. Piper had previously drawn a Sharpie moustache on the man and devil horns, like she did to yearbook pictures of popular girls. Josie kept her jacket and running his tongue over his lip, Leo knew why. He always had his army jacket on too.

"Also he suffers from short-term memory loss, and good morning, and also today it's going to- hey, cool, a piano."

Leo turned around and he felt that Tommy and Frank's eyes shifted directions too.

"Oh my gosh," Quinn said. She got up slowly and investigated the instrument. Leo was still kind-of just shell-shocked that there was a piano.

"Piper tells me that odd things are normal on this ship, but this?" Tommy asked.

"Piper would freak." Leo promised. "Not used to that."

"Frank, did Hazel have a nightmare?" Quinn asked.

"Me? I don't know, how would I know? Why do you ask m..?"

"Well, I assume that you look at her before falling asleep and that you looked at her when you woke up, and so if she moved in her sleep, which she doesn't do usually, you'd know." Quinn said like she was explaining a very basic theory.

"Burn." Leo said. Frank shot him a death glare. "Not literally, but you know…"

"Yeah, she was buried at the bottom of her sleeping bag even though she was complaining about how hot it was last night." Frank said. "So I guess she had a nightmare. Why?"

Quinn pulled a string of gold beads hanging on the piano leg, which was self-explanatory to everyone but Tommy.

"Some fancy ship with a piano must've sunk there," Leo nodded.

"I think I'm missing something," Tommy said.

"Hazel and jewellery… Well, it's a better combo than you'd expect." Frank said.

"No kidding." Leo muttered.

"So it's Hazel that I have to thank for this baby?" Josie said. She walked over to the bench, sat down and ran her fingers from the first key, high-pitch as Octavian screaming, to the lowest key on the piano.

"You play piano?" Frank asked.

"Mmm-hmm. Every loser's got to excel at something. Granted, the twenty millionth symphony of Mozart bores me to whatever version of death is still reliable," Frank scowled, "And 'sit down and practise your ranges' was the best way to have me run in the other direction, but yeah, I play piano." Josie said.

"Play something then," Quinn said.

"It'll wake up everyone else," Tommy said.

"It's a better awakening than what _I _was planning to give." Leo said. Truth: Nyssa had told him how to make a bullhorn with an empty soup can, a few unexpected kitchen chemicals, one elastic, and a lot, a lot of hydrogen. He hadn't believed her, but hadn't found a time to try it out, and it was better to try it on the Argo II so that he could either deny or support her when he got back and look like a genius at the same time.

"Relax, this is a bit of classical I was forced to memorise Wolfgang."

"_Wolfgang?&" _Tommy asked.

"Only German dude I know who wasn't evil," Josie said. "Wolfgang Ama-something Mozart. And now you, because I think you're an okay dude."

"Well I certainly appreciate it." Tommy said. Josie flashed him a thumbs up and then started playing.

Leo had never been super artistic or musical. He built stuff, made jokes, built some more. He didn't know the theory or the practise. Music to him was a pretty thing on the radio (except for certain boy bands), but Josie played _really well. _

It was odd seeing loud and ruckus Josie playing something soft. Those two things should collide but somehow they didn't and it just fused and looked really natural. He got a good look at her face while she played. Her eyes were looking at where sheet music should be and her head was cocked to the side and her fingers flew like they had minds of their own on the keys and for the first time Josie looked peaceful and focused and content and interested in something. If a magical bird could rise from ashes, order could come out of Josie.

Her fingers froze pushing down at one end of the keyboard, and her other hand hovered above the black and white keys. She held it until the sound faded.

"Josie, that was beautiful." Tommy said. "Bolero by Ravel, right?"

"Why of course," Josie said. "I can also pull off some Lady Gaga, but dusty old music pieces with big-brand composers is always more impressive. And so far that's all that I seem to have that's impressive."

"Not true," Leo said. "I thought the telling-the-future thing was pretty awesome."

"Mmm, I suppose. But it doesn't count for I am still in denial. Wolfgang, how does one stuck in the woods since the age of nine know about Ravel?" Josie asked.

Tommy smiled slyly. "I didn't tell you about my father yet, did I?"

"No," Frank said.

"Ooh, story time!" Leo said. _As long as I don't have to go next. _

"Yes, do tell." Someone new in the conversation said. Piper was at the entrance between the Argo II's second floor and the deck, dressed as well, her hair braided with beads. Hazel was right behind her, looking tired and glassy-eyed.

"Good morning everyone." He said.

Leo caught Tommy's brown eyes on her. "Good morning Piper," he said. "Good morning Hazel."

"Hiya Hazel. Good morning Sacagawea, now don't interrupt." Josie said.

"My father caught the attention of Victoria, and this is the brief bit of family history that I know about myself, because he was a chess player." Tommy said.

"Chess player? Sounds much more Minerva to me," Quinn said.

"No, see, he was a champion. He went into tournaments and won them over and over. He was nationally and even internationally known for this, he won nationals in four moves once. My father was a good man, but when he was playing chess I lost him to the pieces on the board and to the stratagems growing in his head. I had a feeling that when he played chess, my father was in a world where he had the power to move and plan on his own without thinking of anyone else. I cannot blame him. It was tough for him, to be a single parent, and he worried about me every other time of the day- even as a child I knew that much. Regardless; he used to tell me; 'chess is the game of kings Tomas, and kings win. You'd be good at this.'."

"What does this have to do with music?" Frank asked.

"My father was convinced that since my mother was a goddess, I could do great things if I had the proper chance. He worked most of his life to earn money to send me to America; he believed my mother's homeland would benefit me more. 'Give me more chances', were his words. He even got an extra job because what he'd made-do with tournament money was no longer enough. He conditioned me from the time I was born to live a good life and be what he called 'well-balanced'. Virtuous, active, intelligent on many plans, strategic and so forth. He tried to find out what put me at the best. He let me try different things and two of them stuck. Football -or I suppose soccer-"

"What the hell is soccer?" Josie asked to herself. Europeans, getting mixed up in their sports, gosh, Leo thought. He actually found it hilarious.

"-And listening to classical music when I did my homework." Tommy finished. "I don't know why. I'm not a big fan of music –no offence Josie-, but I could always remember these pieces and symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven, Bach and Tchaikovsky."

"I can't even remember that guy's name." Frank said.

"Can you play?" Piper asked out of the blue. Her eyes were nailed on Tommy as if they wouldn't move. Kind of like when you saw a dead body or something terrifying and you couldn't look away, except she looked much more interested and not generally displeased at the sight of him.

"Maybe," he said. "I've spent the last seven years far from society in general. Pianos don't come as often in the woods as they apparently do in the ocean."

"This? Pff- this is the least Hazel can subconsciously fish out of the ocean, we're lucky the whole freaking ship didn't slam into ours." Leo said. Frank shot him a look.

"What?" Hazel asked confused.

"Try," Piper asked. "Please?"

Tommy met her eyes for a second. "If you insist."

"And if I don't mind sharing my baby," Josie said. "If Leo can have the ship I can damn well have this piano."

"Yes," Tommy said. "If you don't mind."

"Well aren't you lucky I don't." Josie said, getting off the bench. Tommy took her place and looked at the scales for a few seconds before positioning his hands and playing. Josie immediately seemed to recognise it. Goodness gracious, this was more classical music than Leo had ever heard in his whole life, why must he be so cultured?

"Carmen: Habanera," Piper said once he was finished. "By Bizet."

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Tommy said. "How did you..?"

"I don't know." Piper said. "I must have heard it sometime. Maybe at Camp…"

"Well you did spend a fair amount of time with Will Solace," Leo teased.

"Will Solace?" Tommy asked.

"The husband of mine Leo's imagination has cooked up, who's actually just a friend." Piper said. "But don't tell Leo that, he'd be devastated."

"What, that Santa isn't real?" Percy asked, climbing over deck. He was followed by a weary looking Annabeth and Jason.

"No, the Easter bunny, we were waiting before breaking Santa Claus to him. Oh well, now he knows." Piper said.

"What's with the piano?" Annabeth asked, looking at the instrument puzzled.

As Leo and Frank explained, he noticed that Jason looked ticked off. Maybe it was time to pile on more classical music. Or would that tick him off furthermore?

"Can I bring something up?" He asked.


	60. XXXII Percy and Annabeth

XXXII

Percy

He listened as Frank and Leo explained about the piano (Percy still didn't get it) and how now it was Josie's and how she could play really well and how –oh look- so could Tommy- but he wasn't really paying attention. He was busy trying to pretend Annabeth wasn't right next to him.

He knew he should've left her alone but when he'd woken up someone was in the bathroom so he'd changed in the engine room after making sure Valdez wasn't there. When he'd gone back up, he'd seen her coming out of the bathroom, her bag over her shoulder, pulling her sandy blond curls into a ponytail, wearing a super baggy grey hoody he believed to be Malcolm's from a visit to Harvard most children of Athena had had last November, and jean capris that were ripped at the knee by a hydra and doodled with graffiti by her little brothers when they were younger.

He'd stopped to stare and he really wanted to tell her that she looked beautiful, even if the Argo II was dark, and even if it was really early and she was still half-asleep and even if, even if, even if. He wanted to tell her so many things like that. You look good today, good job winning that chess game, how did you finish that book so fast, how do you make my heart go off like an Olympic sprinter, are you doing okay, even _how are you? _He felt like he wasn't allowed to do that anymore. That he wasn't allowed to be near her, to be with her. He felt like every time he'd try she'd snap like a snapping turtle and force him away and that bothered him.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." She said.

"Okay, grow up. What, I'm not allowed to look at you anymore?"

"There's a thin line between looking and starring," she replied.

"And there's an even thinner line between being rude and being nasty, and you've crossed it a million times." Percy said. "What's up with you? Why do you keep going off on me like that?"

Annabeth scowled. "I told you once, and I'm not saying it again."

"You didn't even tell me freaking once!" Percy said. "Look Annabeth, I get it, I'm human and flawed and really messed up. But I don't read in people's minds. Tell me what it is that I did."

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you," she said, trying to walk to the deck. Percy grabbed her arm because he didn't want to lose the first chance in days he'd had to talk to her but she wiped his hand off and a dagger dropped from her sleeve.

"Don't you dare touch me Percy Jackson," she said, like a hiss from a hydra.

"I wasn't going to...! Gods, Annabeth, gods- you think _I _would do that? Don't you even know me anymore? Don't you know that I would never hurt you?" That insulted him. It made every inch of him scream and want to retreat in insult. He wasn't Gabe Ugliano, he didn't _hurt _people, and much less the women he loved, what had gotten into her? "Can't say the same about you hurting me because you don't even seem to care about how I fit into this! I missed you too, you know. I was lost, like, really lost. Mostly because you weren't there. Do you think I can just wake up one morning and work without you?"

"You were doing a good job when I got to New Rome," she said.

"Is that your problem?" Percy said his struggling brain desperate to figure _something _out. He wanted answers. For once he wanted to just be a teenager. Not a demigod with friends at a camp where he fit in like a puzzle piece that he loved; none of that special family or that special part of him that burned brighter because of the ichor mixing with his blood. He didn't want it. When he was in a car parked on the beach, kissing his girlfriend; he wanted it to be because he was a guy kissing his girlfriend in a car, parked on the beach- _not _because they'd just escaped from a monster that'd promised them death and misery after a long car chase, and he was trying to be funny and prove them wrong to her. When he failed school, it wanted to be because he was too lazy to study; not because his brain was hard-wired for battlefields and half a dozen dead languages. When he missed school, he wanted it to be because he had influenza or even freaking chicken pox; not because some goddess had transported him to the other side of the country. When he had relationship problems, he wanted them to be because he'd done something stupid; not some twisted mind game that hurt in places other than his brain.

"Do you think something happened in New Rome? Is that it?"

"Percy I don't owe you any explanations." Annabeth said. "So don't ever touch me again, don't ever talk to me again, and let it go."

Some part of him felt like giving up. She'd been the one to be his guide and best demigod friend in the godly world; she'd been the one to kiss him in the forges of Hephaestus; she'd been the one to twist his heart and brain into pretzels; she'd been the one to be his piece of home in a parallel universe-like territory, so maybe she should be the one to break him apart. Maybe it made sense in that way Percy hadn't quite gotten.

He was wondering if karma was to blame and if they'd ever be friends again if he let her storm off, but then the hero part of him kicked in. No; he wasn't going to let it go. He didn't want to let it go and so he dang well wouldn't.

"I can't do that," he said. "I didn't let you go in Tartarus, and I can't do it now."

Annabeth twitched when he mentioned Tartarus, as if it hurt.

"Tough luck for you." She said.

"That wouldn't be what you'd have said if I'd let you go before. If I'd 'let it go' when I was in Ogyjia, or last summer with Rachel."

"I don't care." Annabeth said. "It's what I'm saying now."

"You are _impossible!" _Percy said. Suddenly he was so mad and frustrated; he'd been calming himself down like Lupa had taught him, he'd been processing things slowly but surely like in a battlefield, he'd been keeping it all in.

"You're not any better," Annabeth said. "You're just an idiotic boy-hero who got lucky once and now thinks that he's all grown up and powerful and arrogant and adored, and you're going to drop from the sky and crash one day."

"Well you aren't even going to get anywhere if you keep being such a hellhound with everyone!"

"Don't call me that," she growled at him.

"I call things by what they are," Percy said.

"Well two can play at that game, _idiot, waste of space, useless-"_

"Prideful, mean, arrogant-"

That's when Jason walked out of the bathroom and dropped his bag at the head of his sleeping bag.

"Okay- you know what," he said. "You're impossible _both of you. _And like, five people have asked me to talk to you two about this because you're both so hot-headed right now that…" Jason trailed off. "Follow me."

Percy didn't have any 'real respect' for Jason. Like, he didn't recognise Jason as his superior no matter what the number of badges and medals on his armour said. To him, Jason was like Thalia or Nico, just a cousin, and why the Hades would he ever listen to Thalia and Nico in less than life-threatening situations? But maybe it was because he looked so mad and carefully held-together patient that he followed Jason above deck, and Annabeth for some reason did the same.

Annabeth

She wasn't listening to whatever had happened with the piano, she was trying as hard as she could not to break down and cry her heart out. All of her mental focus was centered on it.

She'd noticed that she was one of the last up that day, and so had simply gone to change. When she'd come out of the bathroom because she'd heard stirring and knew that Jason was waiting. He'd said a quick good morning, looking pale so Annabeth knew that he'd gotten another dream on Thalia and the other prisoners, and closed the bathroom door behind him. She'd been pulling her hair into a ponytail when she'd noticed Percy starring at her.

The look had reminded her of the first Goode school dance they'd gone to together. Her school principal was as uptight of a chaperoneguardian as Athena –which made Annabeth highly suspicious- so Percy could never show up on campus to pick her up. Sally insisted on seeing Annabeth as often as she could so that night, she'd gone up to their apartment. The doorman had waved when he'd recognised her and sent her up before she could give him her name. He hadn't even asked if it was okay to send her up, he'd assumed it was.

Paul opened the door, gave her a hug, and got pushed out of the way by Sally who also gave her a hug.

"Whoa, _my _girlfriend," Percy said. He walked past his parents and looked at Annabeth as if she was worth a million drachmas and a million dollars in a golden chest studded with diamonds. He looked at her like she was the prettiest girl there was to look out, even if there was a just-stopped-bleeding cut on her cheek, her hair was kind-of crazily frizzy because of the humidity, and a close call with a Hyperborean yesterday had left her lips cracked since. He kissed Annabeth right in front of his parents, which nobody cared about anymore, and put his fingers on the cut.

"You killed it?" He asked.

"Oh yeah," Annabeth said. "Empoussa in Central Park, not a big deal, found the nest and poisoned it."

"Good, that saves me the trouble of tracking it down and ripping it apart."

She laughed. "What, with your two bare hands?"

"Definitely," he said. "Guess that means that we can go dance now. I'll see you later Mom and Paul."

And then she'd remembered what that look meant and why it felt so special. It was the _I love you, you're beautiful, _look. He'd given it to her when she'd walked off the Argo II as well. When he'd walked her through New Rome and her eyes had been shifting between the buildings and the boy holding her hand that she couldn't believe she was finally back with, that was the look on her face right before he kissed her each time.

She couldn't have him give her that look. Breaking up with him had been a longshot, but it'd been Annabeth's best plan to make him stop caring. That look meant that he still cared, and more than that he cared _a lot_ about her. That didn't work. She had to shoo him away from her. Like when you were training a dog. He did something bad; 'bad dog'. And he didn't do it again. It was harder with Percy. For one thing, he was more stubborn that any being on earth, much less a dog. And two; it tore her apart to see him hurt and it made her want to put those pieces through the shredder to know that it was her fault, her responsibility.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." She said.

"Okay, grow up. What, I'm not allowed to look at you anymore?"

"There's a thin line between looking and starring," she replied.

"And there's an even thinner line between being rude and being nasty, and you've crossed it a million times." Percy said. Her stomach caved in like an excavation tunnel. "What's up with you? Why do you keep going off on me like that?"

She had no real reason. Or at least no real reason that she could tell him. Her brain was so caught by the hurt in his voice that it came up with a lame answer. "I told you once, and I'm not saying it again."

"You didn't even tell me freaking once!" Percy said. "Look Annabeth, I get it, I'm human and flawed and really messed up."

She really wanted to throw her arms around his neck and whisper in his ear that no, he was perfect.

"But I don't read in people's minds. Tell me what it is that I did."

_You loved me. You'd give up the world for me. You'd be there for me no matter what it meant. Most girls look forever to get that, but I have to destroy it. _

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you," she said, trying to walk to the deck. Percy grabbed her arm, probably to keep her back and talk, but she purposefully overreacted.

"Don't you dare touch me Percy Jackson," she said, like a hiss from a hydra.

"I wasn't going to...! Gods, Annabeth, gods- you think _I _would do that? Don't you even know me anymore? Don't you know that I would never hurt you?" That insulted him and she saw it. She could guess why. Gabe Ugliano was flashing back to him. "Can't say the same about you hurting me because you don't even seem to care about how I fit into this! I missed you too, you know. I was lost, like, really lost. Mostly because you weren't there. Do you think I can just wake up one morning and work without you?"

Each of his words was like a punch thrown by a boxer in her stomach. _Do you think I can just wake up one morning and work without you? _Did he think she could? Well, of course he did.

"You were doing a good job when I got to New Rome," she babbled.

"Is that your problem?" Percy said his brain obviously struggling to figure _something _out. But there was no way he could; Annabeth knew he would try and had thus covered her tracks well. "Do you think something happened in New Rome? Is that it?"

"Percy I don't owe you any explanations." Annabeth said. Mostly because she didn't have any real explanation to give him. She felt like they were balancing on her lips and any second, when he'd say the right word the truth would pour out of her mouth, into the open and that'd be that. "So don't ever touch me again, don't ever talk to me again, and let it go."

He looked at her for a second.

"I can't do that," he said. "I didn't let you go in Tartarus, and I can't do it now."

Annabeth cringed when he mentioned Tartarus. The Sibylline books in Tartarus; that was what had started it all.

"Tough luck for you." She said.

"That wouldn't be what you'd have said if I'd let you go before. If I'd 'let it go' when I was in Ogyjia, or last summer with Rachel."

Just the thought of that –of Percy going to that Goode dance with Rachel (even if it was impossible since she was at a private girl's-only boarding school), of Percy lounging in a garden paradise with Calypso- made her want to cringe again.

"I don't care." Annabeth said. "It's what I'm saying now."

"You are _impossible!" _Percy said. He burst like a piñata who'd just taken one hit too many.

"You're not any better," Annabeth said. "You're just an idiotic boy-hero who got lucky once and now thinks that he's all grown up and powerful and arrogant and adored, and you're going to drop from the sky and crash one day."

She felt that description burn through her like a flame through paper. That wasn't true. Nothing in that except for 'hero' was true. None of it could be found in Percy's character, in the core of him. And she was doing all this so that he _wouldn't _drop and crash.

"Well you aren't even going to get anywhere if you keep being such a hellhound with everyone!"

"Don't call me that," she growled at him.

"I call things by what they are," Percy said.

"Well two can play at that game. Idiot, waste of space, useless-"

"Prideful, mean, arrogant-"

That's when Jason walked out of the bathroom and dropped his bag at the head of his sleeping bag.

"Okay- you know what," he said. "You're impossible _both of you. _And like, five people have asked me to talk to you two about this because you're both so hot-headed right now that…" Jason trailed off. "Follow me."


	61. XXXIII Piper, Frank, Malcolm

XXXIII

Piper

She got worried when she saw the look in Jason's eyes. Like a centurion handling two squabbling legionnaires. Well, Piper guessed that that was sort-of what was going on right now.

"Umm, sure," Frank babbled once Jason made his request.

"Look," Jason said looking at Percy and Annabeth who were making a point of not looking at each other. "I get that you guys had some kind of argument or difference or whatever it was. I get that you two aren't on the same terms as before, and I don't even care why. But that doesn't mean that the rest of us have got to pay for it."

"What?" Percy asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't act innocent Jackson," Leo said. Piper hit him in the arm.

"When you two start yelling at each other, do you think that doesn't bother us? Whether it's Quinn trying to read or someone trying to get a tan or Leo who's working magic with wires, or just an innocent bystander- it's tiring and frustrating." Jason said.

"It's like, we get PDA, or we get yelling." Frank said. Piper wanted to slap him but she just focused her eyes on Percy and Annabeth's reactions. Percy just looked mad, Annabeth looked emotionless. *_Too/ _emotionless actually: as if she were one of those Romans when they were hiding something.

"Why are you getting in-"

"Look man," Jason cut Percy. "I'd just suck it up and endure, but five people have been asking me to bring it up because as previously mentioned, you're too busy chewing each other's heads off to actually listen to anyone. So you guys are going to have to get to some kind of agreement because it's driving everyone insane."

"Nobody needs that right now," Hazel said. She coughed and once she stopped, Annabeth spoke up.

"You have no idea, and without the knowledge you can't…"

"Can't intrude on your personal lives, okay, I get it. Fine. I don't know what happened or why, but you two need to sort this out. This is making everyone else edgy and irritable and we don't need that right now. It's already a miracle we're not biting each other's heads off, so don't you two ruin it." Jason said.

"What power do you have?" Percy asked threateningly. Piper nearly felt the electricity gather in the air as Jason subconsciously got ready for battle. The hairs on her arms stood up with static.

"None," Jason said. "But by raise of hand, who here is sick of this?"

Hands went up. Hazel lifted two arms since Quinn looked beyond exhausted, she just smiled thankfully at Hazel and curled up on herself furthermore. Frank raised an arm looking at Percy like he felt sorry, Piper raised a hand because as tough of a blow as this would be on their egos they had to stop acting like children, Leo raised his arm. Tommy looked at Piper and then raised his own arm, obviously clueless on the subject. Ella and Tyson were standing a fair bit away obviously not planning on participating in this, Ella muttering something like 'listen to Mars, yep, yep, yep'. This meant that the only one not raising her hand was Josie. Eyes turned to her puzzled. For the second time that morning and possibly in her life, Josie looked serious, leaning against the railing, her arms crossed.

"What?" She snapped. "Annabeth has her reasons."

"Well it'd help if I had a clue what her-"

"Annabeth has her reasons," Josie interrupted Percy. Annabeth looked paler.

"She's allowed not to raise her hand," Jason told Percy reproachfully. "That's everyone except Josie and you two. Sorry guys, but figure something out." Jason said. "We all want it."

"Well I won't talk it through, but I'll happily ignore him." Annabeth said, purposefully striding to the other side of the deck.

"Fine," Percy snapped at her. He swung both of his legs above the railing and jumped into the ocean.

There was a general groan and everyone scattered. Tommy made a beeline towards Piper which twisted her stomach.

"I just voted with you because I trust your judgement, but I'm out of the loop. What exactly is going on with those two?" Tommy asked her.

Piper explained the Percy-Annabeth relationship drama.

"Maybe I should take Josie's offer of flash cards up," Tommy said. "This *_is/ _complicated."

Piper laughed. "Gives the people who've seen every second of it headaches," she said. "But don't judge them they're not… Usually like this. I don't know what got into Annabeth but when he's not around she's fine. She's smart and nice and cool to be around. And Percy…"

"Percy's looking for his girlfriend in a place he can't find her." Tommy said. Piper was cut back. Yeah, actually, that was exactly it. He seemed familiar with the feeling. Maybe he had a girlfriend. For some reason that ticked Piper off.

"Pretty much," she finally said. "You sure you're not a child of Venus?"

"Gods I hope not," he said. "I mean… Not that it wouldn't be cool or anything… Not that there's something wrong with them- I just- I'm- ah… I'm good with Victoria."

Piper laughed again. "It's cool, I've heard worst."

"I honestly do admire the children of love." Tommy said. "My best friend was one."

"Dani?" Piper asked, remembering her dreams. Tommy frowned for a second and then remembered that Piper knew more about him than anybody on the ship.

"No, someone named Aleks. Dani is unclaimed. Or she *was/ unclaimed…"

"She could still be alive." Piper said noticing the darkness in his eyes. "Maybe after all this is over we can track the European demigods down."

"That would be nice," Tommy said. "Especially the younger ones… Some of them don't have homes to go back to… It's why they're at camp in the first place."

"Does that include you?" Piper asked. He nodded.

"My father had an impossibly rare cancer when I was nine," Tommy said. "It took over his lungs and he got hooked to an oxygen machine. But then the cancer spread to his brain."

"I'm sorry," Piper said knowing the story wouldn't finish well.

"It's not your fault," he shrugged. "Anyways one day, he was supposed to surprise me by being home after school. He was in the living room when he heard a monster and a girl swearing in Hungarian. Or I assume it was Hungarian because the girl was Agnès and she was Hungarian. He let her hide in the house and when she said that she could never repay him. He said that she could if she took me to camp. Done deal, off I went. I never saw him again."

Piper felt choked up, imagining what would happen if she'd spent the last seven to eight years of her life without her father, not knowing if he was alive and where he was and if he was buried or not. Tommy looked up at her and his face darkened when he saw her expression. She wanted to apologise- it was probably hard enough as it was. Everything she was thinking, he was most likely going through.

"What about you?" He asked. "What about your father?"

"Oh," Piper said startled. The Argo II had kept her so busy. Trying to therapy the truth behind the breakup out of Annabeth, fighting the sea monsters that popped out of the ocean too fast to document them all, stopping at mysterious islands, watching the maps and making sure Leo didn't screw up the course, helping to keep the place clean, hanging out with the other half-bloods, worrying about Camp Jupiter, worrying about Camp Half-Blood… She'd barely thought about dad. Or maybe she had pushed thoughts of him away on purpose, afraid that she'd die a million miles in unclear conditions away from him. What would they tell him if she died? That a plane had crashed in the sea? That she'd been kidnapped? Would he believe it? Or would they then tell him everything? Piper hated the fact that the last thing he might possibly know about her was a lie.

"He's an actor," she said. If he'd told her about his dad, then she could easily, easily do the same. "You wouldn't have heard of him, but he's pretty famous in the United States."

"Wow, you must have lived well." Tommy said.

"Yeah," Piper mused. "To tell you the truth, I was a freaking spoiled brat about it. I'm not proud of it, but I might as well say it like it is. I'm hoping to make up for it."

"I think if you're on this boat in the first place you make up for it. And for what it's worth, to me, how you saved some stranger's life meant a lot. I wouldn't care if you'd been a mass murderer in the States. Well, okay, maybe I'd care a little."

Piper laughed. "Thanks. But I meant making it up to him."

"I'm sure he thinks the same," Tommy said.

"He doesn't know I'm a demigod," Piper said. "He thinks Mom just left us. Just another one of those people who screws up and moves on… He found out last December when he got kidnapped by a giant and… Well, it went over like a lead balloon. My mother helped me wipe his memory."

"How hard is it?" Tommy asked. "Doing these great things without him knowing what they are? What you're actually doing?"

"It's not that bad," Piper said. "Sometimes I'd like to tell him 'hey, look dad, this is my dagger and I can kill stuff with it. See? I'm not a horrible daughter, those private schools just weren't right'. But I rather keep him happy and if this fantasy world inside a world is too hard for him, then it'll stay my little secret."

"That's brave," Tommy said.

"Not really." Piper said.

"There are different kinds of brave. Josie's brave by not jumping off this boat even if she obviously hates being a demigod and having whatever this power of hers is. Hazel is brave by going to fight Gaia again. The rest of you are brave by going off into the unknown."

"Hey, you're part of this too, now." Piper said. "We didn't just pick you up for no reason. The gods put you on our path. The gods always put the people we need to meet on our paths."

"I suppose," he said.

"Which makes you brave for not killing each and every one of us, lounging here on this warship while your camp got stormed." Piper said.

"I suppose," he said.

"Well I know so." Piper said.

Frank

After breakfast he went off to find Hazel when he noticed that she wasn't talking with Quinn and Josie, trying to have mechanics and technology explained to her by Leo, and she wasn't with him either.

He headed under deck and spotted her sitting on her sleeping bag, sketching.

"Hey," he said. She looked up at him and Frank nearly frowned. Her eyes were a bit more sunken into her skull. She was hunched over a bit more than usual.

"Hi," she replied. Then she coughed.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Hazel shrugged and Frank sat down in front of her.

"What's wrong? You look sick. Is it the seasickness? I actually *_made/ _the *_aurae/ _give me ginger this time if you think that that'd…"

"That's sweet," she said. She coughed. "But no, I'm used to it now."

"So what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's okay, I'm just tired."

"Nuh-uh. I've seen you tired before. You look like a zombie right now Hazel, what's wrong?" Frank pushed.

She looked up at him, willing him to shut up. "I'm okay."

"Then you won't mind sparring with me? Or talking with Quinn and Josie? Or Leo making your ears bleed? Or helping everyone else clean the deck and such?"

She shot him a 'screw you' look. "I'm just feeling bad, it's fine."

He knew that she wasn't and he knew that she knew exactly what was going on.

"I'm fine," she repeated. "Please Frank?"

"Alright," he said getting up and leaving. "Fine."

Malcolm

He was pushing Chiron's wheelchair from the porch to the Big House's rec room.

"Thank you Malcolm," Chiron's voice was frail. Malcolm had done all the research there was to be done, he'd even snuck into the Big House's private library hidden in the broom closet, and had stayed up a week to go through the 'out-dated' or 'too worn' books stored in the Athena Cabin's attic.

He didn't know how to fix Chiron, but he and Nyssa had talked to the other counsellors and they were all pretty sure. His immortality was getting sapped at by Gaia, who was probably planning on doing this to Lupa if she already wasn't and to the other gods afterwards. Chiron's years were catching up to him. In maybe a week Malcolm would be pushing a wheelchair full of ancient dust.

"No problem," he said. "Anything I can do?"

"Yes," Chiron said. "Go find your cabin, they should be rock-climbing. Go with them. Be their head counsellor."

Malcolm pursed his lips. "Alright, if it's what you-"

He was cut by a commotion from outside. There was Clarisse's voice, Nyssa's, a few other counsellors and… Barking? Growling? Oh, what the hell, who got rabies?

The door burst open and the senior counsellors flooded into the living room with what looked like two metal dogs- one gleaming gold, the other shining silver, with rubies where their eyes should be.

"What's going on? Nyssa, did you make those?" Malcolm asked.

"No way! This is the real thing baby, two real automatons made by Hephaestus himself." Nyssa said about as excited as a kid on Christmas morning, or Clarisse with a new weapon. "Which is why they're here and not hay-wire in the middle of nowhere. They got here five minutes ago, scaring the Styx out of the Stolls who were guarding the borders with Peleus."

"Did not." Both parties said.

"Anyways," Nyssa said. "We think they're from Rome."

"Rome?" Malcolm asked.

"Yeah," Nyssa said. She knelt down next to the two automatons, which immediately turned to her and put their silver and gold paws on her lap, probably recognising her as a daughter of their creator. She nudged the letter attached to one's collar and Malcolm recognised the purple seal. SPQR- olive branches on the side- the eagle…

Malcolm knelt in front of the gold dog that had the letter on its collar and held out his hand.

"Hey," he said. "Can I have that letter? I think it's for us."

The dogs growled.

"Tell it that you're leader," Lou Ellen said.

"What, *_me/?" _

"You're the dumbest child of Athena ever. Yes, you." Clarisse said.

Malcolm looked back at the dog.

"Yo, I remember Jason talking about these." Will said. "They're his girlfriend's. Well, his 'I'm not gonna call her that but she obviously is' girlfriend. He called her his colleague. Romantically stupid guy."

"Isn't that Piper?" Someone asked.

"No, no, they got over that."

"Ah," Malcolm said. "So this is from your praetor?" He asked the dogs again. They both growled.

"Look, we need to read it. I'm… the leader of camp for now. Please?"

The dogs immediately sat down and after a few seconds Malcolm deemed it safe to approach them and take the letter off. He scratched the dogs under the stomach, figuring that he should reward them for cooperation, and guessing on the fact that Hephaestus had probably added a nervous system to them so that they'd be able to recognise a touch.

He opened the letter and saw lines and dots and slashes.

"Morse code," Malcolm said. "I think there's a book in the cabin on…"

Clarisse snatched the letter.

"Don't bother, I know Morse code. It was used during War; any idiot in my cabin can read it. It probably means that this praetor girl is probably a child of war too."

"Great," Malcolm said. "Can you translate?"

"Maybe." Clarisse said.

"Clarisse," Chiron said.

"Yeah, yeah, I can do it." She said grabbing the letter from Malcolm and sitting down at a table demanding a pen. Malcolm lent her his.

"I always thought that codes were more of an Athena thing," Drew said.

"No. Children of Athena figure them out. Children of Ares *_know/ _them." Clarisse said, jotting down letters. Malcolm didn't get how she could sort out dahs and dits with her dyslexia, but perhaps it worked the same way as Ancient Greek did- something her brain was wired for when the English language, sadly, was not.

"Got it," she said after a few minutes.

Malcolm read it off.

_*To whoever in CHB this concerns,_

_ The Argo II is leaving as I write this, but it is being pushed out by the First, Second and Fourth Cohorts. Centurion Octavian Dalton, also the augur, leads the rebellion. They claim Piper's charmspeak is a form of brainwash against Rome's senate and that Jason, Percy and I (the three standing praetors) are traitors. They seven are fleeing after escaping their guards and heading towards the ship. Do not expect Annabeth back at camp._

_ After I send this plea for help I will go and distract them to let the Argo II and the half-bloods escape. I am undoubtedly going to be imprisoned. Rome will be under the command of unlawful and unqualified leaders. Two cohorts are still loyal. I ask for your help. If we can be allies in the face of Gaia, then we can surely be allies in the face of traitors. You cannot win this war without Rome, just as Rome cannot win this political battle without you. _

_ S.O.S._

_ Reyna Bell, daughter of Bellona, Praetor of Rome _

Everyone looked at Malcolm.

"This is serious." Pollux said.

"No Styx Sherlock," Travis said. "So what, we've got to go free this Reyna girl?"

"If she is a daughter of Bellona," Chiron said weakly, "She is perhaps more vicious than a child of Mars."

"Excuse me?" Clarisse scowled.

"Bellona as a goddess is complex. She was adopted as a Roman war goddess after they annexed the Sabine people in an act of cruelty." She shadows in his face made it seem like Chiron remembered it. "Unlike Mars or Ares, she is flexible. She is more than war. She is intelligence and character and passion and flexibility and change and adaptation in the midst of action. If someone made this girl truly a captive- I fear that you have a hard task ahead of you."

"So… We don't go?" Connor asked.

"Of course we go!" Travis said smacking his brother.

"Well what are we going to do?" Katie asked. Eyes shifted to Malcolm. It was hard being Annabeth's little brother. People expected great strategies and flashes of inspiration from you all the time, people expected perfect and invulnerable plans that couldn't and wouldn't fail.

"I have an idea." He said.


	62. XXXIV Leo, Cate

**This is a chapter to say Happy Mother's Day. I know that there are probably no mothers reading this because mothers are too busy being amazing to read fanfiction (or at least three quarters of them), but Happy Mother's Day to all. Go hug the mother/motherly figure in your life. Tightly.**  
><strong>Also it's the Survivor Finale tonight :D YEAY! Go Kim!<strong>  
><strong>Pay attention in this may be ishy short, but it's important as Hades in both scenes. Just… Pay attention<strong>.

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

**Dedication: To my mom **

* * *

><p>XXXIV<p>

Leo

"I've been workin' on the railroad, all the live long day. I've been workin' on the railroad, just to pass the time away. Don't you hear the whistle blowing? Rise up so early in the morn. Don't you hear the captain shouting-"

"Leo, shut up." Jason said.

"Nope, those are _not_ the lyrics."

"Leo shut up." Josie said with a killer look in her eyes. She was already in a bad mood because Jason had told her off for something socially unacceptable that morning.

"Well, I suppose that it's a socially acceptable alternative." Leo said. He was spinning the wheel of his boat -which was his favourite mechanical toy, like, _ever- _and pushing some of the buttons, spinning the thingamabobbers, pushing down the watchamacallits. Sun was shining, sky was blue, no monster was in sight, nobody was yelling at one another, so he was going pretty good right now.

That was when Frank came up to see him.

"Yo man," Leo said. "Finally here to accept my offer?"

"What offer? No, I'm not calling you the Leo-nator that makes no sense." Frank said. "It's about Hazel."

Yeah, yeah. She was Papi Valdez's old girlfriend and he didn't really like her in _that way_, but for some reason he now considered Hazel like some kind of little sister. He'd already hurt her (kind of) because his stupid mouth couldn't keep questions in; so now he wanted to keep her safe. That same weird urge he felt around Nyssa and Harley and those dudes.

"What about her?" Leo asked. He pushed on a doohickey with his thumb and spun the wheel of the boat left. They were now at the cruising height of a Boeing 737 on autopilot.

"I think something's wrong. She's been coughing all morning, and it doesn't sound right. Her eyes are all sunken in. She slouches. I think she's sick and not just sick, sick. But like…"

"The Underworld-child-who-came-back-to-life kind of sick?" Leo offered.

"Yeah," Frank frowned. "_That _sick."

"Well, what can I do?" Leo asked.

"Go talk to her." Frank asked. "She won't talk to me, but you…"

"Are you _sure _you're not overreacting?" Leo asked. Frank had these weird and overwhelming protective instincts about Hazel. Leo was sure it was love, but still. Love occasionally screwed up. Speaking of which, Annabeth had just walked above deck talking to Ella, who hopped backwards muttering off to her.

"Do you know how she died?" Frank said. "Specifically _how _she died_?_"

"Umm, yeah, Gaia killed her." Leo said.

"She was crushed by a cave and piles jewels and –guess what- oil. Oil filled her lungs and she was crushed in that cave. Can you imagine her last seconds? Oil and dust filling her lungs, chunks of debris breaking her bones?" Frank closed his eyes and shivered. Leo felt like he needed a hug and he'd just _heard_ about it, much less _lived_ through it. "If that doesn't make a person cough, I don't know what does." Frank said. "I've been trying to figure out what sounds different about her, and I just put my finger on it. It sounds like she's choking, or having an asthma attack or _something_."

That crept Leo out enough for him to concede and accept to do Frank's dirty work. He locked the ship onto autopilot and climbed down the stairs. Piper, Tommy, Percy and Jason were talking at one end, sitting on the kitchen's counters. Percy was storytelling and Jason was denying every word he said like 'no way you tackled a thing with tentacles _that big_''. Hazel was sitting on her sleeping bag, sketching in her sketch book.

"Hey Hazel," he said. She snapped the book shut as fast as she could and looked up. Frank was right; her eyes were sunken into her skull.

"Oh- hey."

"I'm sure your drawing's not _that _bad." Leo said.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." She smiled and it looked like it hurt, like it was a lie. "I can't get the eyes right, though."

"Draw him eyeless. Say that it's an artistic representation of humanity's blindness at the needs of others and the important things in life."

"I'll try that," she said. She didn't reopen her sketchbook.

"What's wrong?" Leo asked.

"What do you mean 'what's wrong'?"

"Well, you're acting like a hermit. Josie and Quinn's circle look incomplete without you. It's pitiful. My eyes hurt." Leo said. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," she said.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Really, really?"

"Yes Leo."

"Really, really, really?"

"Yes Valdez."

"Really, really, really, really?"

"Leo-

"Really, really, really, really, really?"

"Leo I'm going to stab you!" Hazel said loudly. Percy turned back and mouthed something like 'do it'.

Hazel looked back at Leo and said quietly, "That's the last thing I need 'right now'."

"Right now, eh? What's so special about right now?"

Hazel adjusted her legs uncomfortably. "It's complicated."

"Small child- stop underestimating me! I built this damn boat and I can sort-of keep up with all the love triangles and drama! I _think _that I can follow most things now. Except Latin verbs."

Hazel looked down at her hands, folded neatly above her sketchpad.

"It's _really _complicated."

"Really, really compli..?"

"Oh- shut up," Hazel said. "If you… If you really want to know,"

"Which I think I happen to," Leo said.

"I… I've been thinking a lot. About the future."

"Ah yes, time travel." Leo said. "That question has pestered humanity for ages. Or did I scare you with my talk on cyborgs?"

"No, like, the immediate future. After we get to Greece and fight with Gaia."

"Ah. And?" Leo asked.

Hazel closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"And I've determined that I'll die." Hazel said.

"Wow, you aren't too comfy with our chances of success, now are you?"

"No, I mean… If this doesn't work, we all die. If this _does_ work… I die."

Leo froze for a second and his blood chilled in his veins. "I'm not following you."

"Leo, when this is over, Medea and Phineas and Midas all go back to the Underworld. Right now there are millions of empty spots down there, waiting for someone to fill them before things are back to normal. When Gaia falls, they'll fill those slots again themselves, but… But who's going to fill mine?" Hazel asked shakily.

Leo starred at her and blinked twice.

"Wait, you're… You think that…"

"Leo, I'm sure of it. My dreams aren't dreams, they're nightmares- I see myself dying. My breaths aren't breaths anymore, they're robbing air- I hear the wheezing sound and feel oil in my lungs. My movements aren't movements they're struggles- my muscles are losing contact with my heart and brain. My life… It isn't a life, it's a cheat." She said. "And cheaters never win."

Cate Amjad

She shifted her weight onto her other foot, bored out of her mind. Guarding wasn't any fun without Quinn or Jedediah or even Josh- who was technically the only close friend she had in this demented place. Heck, Camp wasn't fun anymore without her close friends, she was worried sick. Worried for Quinn who was on the Argo II with people who minimally knew her and might not deal well with her sleep problems, and for Jedediah who was who knew where going through who knew what.

Usually she and Jed would stand together at the entrance of the Caldecott tunnel and she'd try to drop hints at him about how Quinn had this major crush on him. Now she was stuck with this loud-mouth son of a gorgon from the fourth cohort who was either a) trying to flirt with her, b) being obnoxious or c) both. She was pretty sure his name was Ben, possibly Benoit or Benedict, but she mentally referred to him as Brick.

"I say we go back inside. Joan doesn't even _want _us out here."

"What is Joan, a freaking god? Who cares what she wants! The Senate finally voted to watch out for new half-bloods again. You can go back inside if your feet are tired and your nose is cold, cuddle up with your lazy-butt cohort- I'm staying here." Cate snapped at him.

The Brick looked at her and a hand reached out and circled her throat.

"Don't insult the fourth cohort." Choking seemed like a real and scary option.

"I'll scream," Cate warned. Nearly regretfully, he settled for letting her go and shoving her back. She hit the wall next to the door of the Caldecott tunnel and venom and insult filled her mouth. She dropped her _pilum, _lifted her hand and her fingers glowed green.

"_Ala-"_

She was interrupted by the sound of a screaming lunatic. She looked away from the Brick and saw a kid running down the highway, swerving through cars and going 'excuse me, pardon me, my bad'.

Her heart dropped to her feet. No way… No way…

She squinted and stepped away from the door to see him better. She couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl, but he was running fast as Pluto which Cate didn't get because she didn't see a-

The silhouette cut itself from the background getting bigger and bigger, and Cate nearly passed out. A beast with the body of a lion, three heads of equally lethal nature (lion, goat, dragon- trust her on the goat's lethality) and a forked tail, the only reason he wasn't squishing a million cars was that his paws were far apart enough to be on either side of the highway.

"Chimaera!" She warned the Brick.

"No way," he waved off.

"Oh you're right, that thing's just a camel_." _Cate snapped at him. She got on her toes. Okay, it was a guy, and a pretty short one.

"Come on!" She yelled waving her sword in the air. "You're close! Keep running, last effort!" She cheered him on and finally jumped into traffic, pushing back a car with her spear. She grabbed the kid's arm and dragged him forwards as a column of fire blew out of the beast's middle mouth like some insane plush blowtorch.

"Come on!" She said. "Brick- no- Ben- cover me!"

She ran into the maintenance tunnel as Ben entertained the beast. Hopefully the Chimaera wouldn't try to follow. It was too big- but Cate doubted that that'd stop it. It'd probably just run right into it and destroy the passageway to Camp. Cate wondered what kind of punishment that could get her with Joan.

Their two pairs of feet clamped against the cement floor and Cate turned to get a better look at the boy. His clothes were torn up, and he was holding a sword that seemed brand new out of the forges. His hair was messy, shaggy and brown and it fell in his eyes. His eyes were mischievously blue, his eyebrows arched and his ears and nose pointy. He looked like a troublemaker, but a pretty cute troublemaker at least.

"What's your name buddy? Do you know who the hell your parent is?" Cate asked.

"Colin Roberson," the guy told her. "Son of –oh, what's his name… Oh yeah; Mercury."


	63. XXXV Leo, Piper, Quinn, Cate

**Hi! I'm sorry I'm so very late but small update: I'm dealing with arm spasms right now. It's really annoying and it sometimes makes it hard to type. So be patient with me, I'm doing my best but it kind of sucks, so… Yeah. I may be late again and my other stories are being neglected in horrible manner. Anyways, ENJOY this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own.**

* * *

><p>XXXV<p>

Leo

Jane sat against the wall, breathing deeply and painfully. Leo was shocked to see tears streaming down her face. Tough girl had faced a hurdle she could not jump, it appeared. It made Leo kind-of scared for all the tough girls on the ship (so, like, all of them) and even the guys.

That's when a woman appeared out of nowhere. Her curls were rich, thick and brown. Her eyes were a brilliant blue like a beach tourists and boats hadn't ruined yet, and she was about the most beautiful woman Leo had ever seen. She wore a white Roman empress dress with a vivid red sash and delicate gold jewellery.

"Jane," she said. "Jane Stone… Honey, sweetheart, don't do it."

"Lady Venus," Jane said, straightening up.

"P-lease, that's not important right now," Venus waved her hand. This was Aphrodite, Leo realised, except she actually looked like one person. Go figure, the Romans liked everything to be certain and definite.

"There's nothing you can do to stop me." Jane said. "Nothing. You're the goddess of love. You understand that. You know why me, of all people…"

"That doesn't mean I like it, or that you have to rush things. Nature and fate would work their magic once more, you know. This isn't something you have to force. It isn't something you'd ever had to force."

"No. I'm sick of fighting. If I'm gone, the Romans will be lost. The Greeks still won't be able to conquer them and it'll just stop. That's what I want. That's what _he _wanted. And maybe I'll meet up with him in Elysium. Maybe we'll be reincarnated in the next life together. That's how it has been for thousands of years, yes?"

"Yes," Venus sighed. "You've always found each other, you and Cedric. You've gone by a thousand names and lived a thousand lives but more often than not, you were together.

But Jane, when I talked to you about the Symposium and what it meant… It was so that you'd move on."

"I am moving on. I can't stay here, my work is done. I can't do anything more to stop the war and I won't move a muscle to progress it." Jane said.

"Sweetheart…"

"My choice is made." she said.

"They'll heal you, the medics are quite good." Venus said.

"I don't think so." Jane said.

Venus looked at her. "I know you're grieving him. Cedric, of course. His execution blew you apart. Your friend's betrayal, Malinda –curse her-, hurt too."

"She moved directly against my orders to have him executed before my return. I didn't even have the chance to entertain the senate. To _try _and save him." Jane said coldly. Tears still streamed down her cheeks and she wiped them off. "But I'm not some damsel in distress, with thoughts twisted by grief. No. I never was and I will never be. I know what I'm doing, I know the price and it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

"Your life?" Venus asked.

"Certainly." Jane said.

Piper

"See that?" He asked pointing to the book. 'Latin for Dummies'; Leo's main Latin-learning tool. Even though he spoke flawless and perfect English and Spanish (when he put in the effort to step away from slang), Leo hadn't been able to speak Latin, like, ever. His excuse was 'Sorry bro, I'm too Greek for you'.

"Yeah. Okay, _Quando _is when… So… _Quando te vidi non c'eri: _ When I saw you, you weren't there." Piper translated.

"Perfect," Tommy said. "I don't see why you need tutoring in Latin. Jason and whoever your Centurion was in Rome seem to have taught you well enough."

The truth was: Piper didn't need any tutoring. It was just an excuse to get to sit down with Tommy away from everyone else and try to figure out why she felt like she'd seen him before.

"I suppose," Piper said. "It's weird. Sometimes I've got it and sometimes I'm just looking at it and going 'why can't dead languages stay dead?'"

"That's because you're Greek," Tommy smiled. He was sitting right beside her and even if he'd been on the Argo II for two days, he still smelled like evergreen trees. She wondered if that was where the Camp had been installed; in an evergreen forest.

"Well you're Roman and that hasn't stopped you from learning a million languages." Piper said.

"That's because only two of the ones I speak are dead," Tommy said.

"Latin isn't dead. It apparently didn't kill the Romans, it's just killing me." Piper said. He laughed.

Quinn

She looked over the railing, her legs slipped through the bars and dangling over open water. For some reason she was thinking of Jedediah.

She'd put a lot of effort into specifically _not_ thinking about him. Maybe the voices would then drop the subject.

Every morning when Jason woke up she desperately wanted to jump him and demand information on the captives, to make sure, to _know, _that Jedediah Adams was still alive. He'd been taken because Quinn had taken a liking to him. Was that her curse? Not the voices- the _other _curse. The curse Minerva had come back to Quebec to discuss with her father.

_ Quinn must never marry._

Part of her wished that she'd never overhead that conversation because she'd been pushing boys away since. Not boys, like, Frank or Percy or Leo. Boys that might like her or said they might. Jean was one. He was a jerk but he always made Quinn feel like he'd grab her hand and that'd be that. He was the first person she'd disliked so much, but she still didn't want him to be dead on the streets one day. She didn't even know if her curse could do that. Heck, she didn't know if it would take place if someone just _liked _her, but that possibility terrified her.

She'd developed a good ability to run- metaphorically and literally. When Quinn was seven she didn't understand her curse quite well, but she understood that people couldn't love her in the way couples on the street did, or two parents did. So when that game at school, kiss-tag, had popped up she'd bolted like a cheetah at every single 'YOU'RE IT!' There were other things that'd happened over the years. The school idiot, Jean, had taken advantage of that fear when he'd seen it. But she was good at it now. Smarter about it too.

Jedediah was the first person that made her _not _want to bolt. With his green eyes, shaggy brown hair, shy smile and brown military jacket. With the little United States flag badge on the shoulder that kept falling off. Cate had always had to magically glue it back on, Quinn had tried sewing, but no can do. He always showed up in her barrack or at her table or whatever holding his jacket in one hand and the little flag in the other. He smiled that cute smile and said 'hey Quinn…' and then she'd sigh and pretend to be upset at him even though she liked holding his jacket and having him sit next to her and watch and try to learn to sew.

But she'd bolted and then she'd had to run for her life and the sake of the mission and here she was, and there _he _was, in the prisons of Gaia. That wasn't exactly a promising love story.

She wanted to make things right. Curses seemed to be chipping away and breaking as fast as they appeared on the Argo II. Why not hers? Why couldn't Quinn get a chance to find someone like what Percy had been (and still was, in Quinn's mind) to Annabeth? Or horribly flirt with someone without knowing you were flirting like Tommy and Piper did? Have someone watch her back as tightly and care for her as much as Frank and Hazel? She wanted that. Maybe not now, but she wanted it sometime in her life.

She had to break her curse. She'd do like Gaia did: start at the root of the problem like you'd dig up a tree.

The question was; how? And what _was _the root of the problem? 

Cate Amjad

Joan leaned back in the praetor chair. Cate tried not to notice that that exposed her throat to slicing. She tried to listen for the real praetor. Cate knew that Reyna was in one of those tiny prisons under the _pricinpia. _But so far she hadn't heard anything, which didn't surprise her. Reyna didn't cry out when she was hurt, and she had more dignity than to beg or just yell for the fun of it or to irritate the living out of Joan (although that was a strategy worth looking into).

"So," Joan said. "You were sent here by Lupa?"

"Yeah," Colin said. He was the most ADHD kid Cate had seen in a while. He looked at Joan and then at the Remus and Romulus stained glass, then at the jelly beans (with envy), then the iPad, then the floor, then at his nails and then he rubbed them on his chest and then he tapped his feet and then he put his hands in his pockets then he made funny faces at Cate when Joan wasn't looking, then he took his hands out of his pockets and then…

"Look at me," Joan growled. Cate elbowed him so he'd pay attention and his head snapped away from one of the standards, squinting as if to read the Latin written on the flag.

"Sorry I'm just kind of amazed." He said. "Anyways, yeah?"

"I'm supposed to believe that?" Joan said.

"Well, if you believe the truth on most days."

Cate bit her lips to keep from laughing and she elbowed him for him to shut up.

"Fine, I authorise him to join the legion." She said.

"Can I have some jellybeans?" He asked.

"No. Amjad, get him out."

"And do I need to bring him to the augur?" Cate asked, knowing she'd be in for it.

Joan death-glared Cate. "No, I don't think that will be necessary. But take him to the baths, he smells like a Greek sewer."

"Yes Praetor Golan," Cate said. She extended her arm in a Roman salute and led Colin away.

"Oh, Amjad?" Joan called. Styx, she'd been so close to getting away with it…

She spun around. "Yes Praetor Golan?"

"Where is your _pilum?" _

"I was in such a hurry to bring the new recruit to safety that I left it outside." Cate said.

"Outside with the chimaera, you mean?"

"Yes ma'am." Cate said.

"You're wasting our imperial gold. The supplies aren't endless and the Argo II already left with much of it. Your Centurion will hear about this and he _will _punish you. I don't care if Brady is a prissy do-gooder who's afraid to teach the legionnaires under his control a lesson."

Cate had to swallow back a mouthful of venom. If it were up to her she'd cast an eternal sleeping spell on Joan, and wake her up once Reyna was free. But she couldn't do that. The noise would attract half the legion right there. And sadly half the legion was on Joan's side, or held to it by a promise on the earth they'd made to their centurion.

And the sad thing was, Joan probably didn't even realise that Cate could totally do that to her.

"Yes Praetor Golan." Cate said. "Come on Colin."

She marched out of the room and the newbie scrambled to keep up.

"What was that about?" He asked. "Why do you hate your praetor?"

"Why? Did she seem nice to you?" Cate said.

"No, but, you know." He shrugged.

"She stole the power. Well, she stole it with some other guy, Octavian, who stole it from our two actual praetors. But then she killed him, so now it's all hers. If you see people from the fourth cohort you'll notice that they're not doing anything and that they show up at muster in jeans and sneakers and play cards instead of doing chores."

"Ick," Colin said. "Lazy sons-of-a-gorgon."

"Pretty much," Cate said. "But you aren't supposed to say it out loud. If one of them hears you, you're going to be newbie-on-a-stick, roasting on a fire."

"Oh Styx they're _cannibals?" _Colin said in panic. Cate laughed.

"Not literally," she said still laughing. "Thanks for that, I needed it."

"Why?" Colin asked. "Pretty girl like you, and nobody's willing to make you laugh?"

"Nah," Cate said realising she should flirt back. "I come from one of the still loyal cohorts. Well, 'loyal' to the rightful praetors, that is. Wait- you do know what a cohort is?"

"Oh yeah," Colin said. "Lupa made me super smart. I should've just skipped school and went to her."

"I know, eh?" Cate grinned. She liked Colin. She'd have to stand for him at muster. The fifth cohort couldn't handle any more kids and this guy seemed like he had good chances of getting in trouble with his crazy grin and sense of humour. And he'd get his face smashed in if second or first stood for him for some reason. Fourth, of course, wouldn't dream of doing that. They acted like a private yatch club of rich people. Snotty, introvert and about as open to others as a monk's mouth.

"So what happened to that other praetor?"

"One of them escaped and is accomplishing this mission thing that could save the world. The other is still here, locked up in the prison."

"You guys have a prison? Why the frigg do you guys have a _prison?" _

"For prisoners. Duh. Anyways, it's under the _principia, _the HQ we were just in_." _

"Oh, cool." Colin said. "You know, the more time I stay here, the more comfortable I feel around you folks."

"You're going to love it," Cate said. "It… Well, it was nicer before, but when you ignore the Fourth cohort and the praetor it still is."

"Isn't that super dangerous?"

"Yeah well, I'm a rebel." Cate said bitterly, thinking of Quinn and Jedediah.

"You look like a ticked off rebel." Colin said. "Still pretty though."

Cate grinned. "Thanks. Sometimes your day just gets better when a cute guy calls you pretty."

"Cute? I go with _pretty _but don't get _strikingly handsome_in return? What is this?"

Cate laughed. "Patience, grasshopper. Come on; let's get you to the baths."

"Baths? Like, strip in commonplace and bathe with others bath?" Colin grimaced.

"You wear a swimsuit, stupid." Cate rolled her eyes. "Looks like Lupa didn't make you superhuman."

"Nope; does not look so." He said. "Too bad. I'd have been unstoppable."

"Watch out world!" Cate said. "I'd have magically built myself a bunker."

"Magically? You're magic? Like, unicorns and black cats and ravens?"

"That's highly insulting," Cate said. "Unicorns are for healers."

"Still cool," Colin said. "So if I was craving, like, Fanta right now, could you make a nice glass of it appear with a lemon wedge?"

"No, but I can do this." Cate said smacking thin air. Colin's head bucked forwards and he exclaimed in surprise/mini outrage.

"Who drinks Fanta with lemon?" She asked.

"I do," Colin said hurt.

"You're a creep."

"You're catty."

"Want me to give you the tour?"

"Sure thing." Colin said.


	64. XXXVI Annabeth, Leo, Cate, Malcolm

**I apologise for late posting but I was exhausted yesterday. Spasms are still going on. Gotta love 'em spasms and et cetera. I got a mental health break from school on Friday because the school was doing this Pep Rally/all-day-outside thing that I thought would be a very bad idea.**

**You're probably going to have to keep being patient with me and posting times. On all stories. Right now I just have bupkis energy, and my stories Hunting Stories and Scourge of the Seven Seas are suffering :( I'm very sorry, but I really would keep them up to date if I could right now. **

**Anyways this is dedicated to the following people: Patch's Amour, Nala Jackson, Jace-Finnick-Will-Tobias, and Mrs. Hutcherson. Not their real names but they're my best friends and they got me good on my birthday and I love them all for it.**

**Disclaimer: Me no Own**

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><p>XXXVI<p>

Annabeth

Quinn dragged her down to the engine room by the hand without saying a word. Annabeth was royally confused until Quinn backed her up against a wall and looked at her with such penetrating eyes Annabeth nearly called her 'Mother'.

"Intervention time," she declared. Under her rectangular glasses, her tired and pocketed grey eyes looked focused.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"The universal mantra of children of Athena/Minerva," Quinn said. "_Give us knowledge, then let us find wisdom, and use it in power or for the better. _It's been like that for a thousand years. That's how Einstein, Daedalus, Socrates, Archimedes, Marie Curie, Churchill - that's what they all did. I was raised by my siblings on it. So were you." Quinn said.

"I understand that, and yes I'm familiar with it, but…"

"You're being very unwise," Quinn said. "Don't you see that? Nobody wants to say it, but I will because I'm your sister and I know you're better than that. Everyone's feeling awkward because it feels like we have to have two faces; one for talking to Percy and one for talking to you. Hazel really doesn't like you right now because of what you're doing to Percy. Piper stands by you but she's confused like Hades. Frank and Tyson and Ella and Leo are kind-of ignoring the awkwardness, and Jason doesn't care for all this drama it's causing. Josie… Josie I don't know, I never know, and Tommy hasn't decided yet."

"How do you know all that?" Annabeth asked.

"Because I _see _it, Annabeth. I could take off my glasses and still see it." Quinn said. "And so would you if you weren't so blinded by your feelings for Percy."

"I don't have any feelings for him," Annabeth said. Even to her the lie sounded weak. She stayed up at night looking at the ceiling and the lantern that swung with the rock of the ship thinking it. _I don't like Percy Jackson. I don't like the way he's brave and sweet. I don't find every stupid comment endearing. I don't find him funny. I don't like the way he makes me feel like a million bucks. I don't like his lips on mine. I don't like Percy Jackson. _

"Please," Quinn said. "What am I, a child of stupid? I don't believe it for a second. So I don't know why you're doing this, but it's got to stop."

"Quinn you don't…"

"Understand? Imagine that, I don't understand a mysterious phenomenon that came out of the blue without any explanation and foreshadowing and seems to have taken over my sister. Hmm. Particular, is it not?"

Annabeth was tongue-tied. Quinn was really ticked off right now. Never before had she been such a solid wall of words.

She was trying to formulate a response that would satisfy Quinn. But she started thinking of the complexion of her brand new shinny lie and she saw the way Quinn was looking at her and she couldn't take it anymore, and she just broke down.

It _was _about as 'out of the blue without any explanation and foreshadowing' as Quinn made the breakup to be, except foreshadowing had been there aplenty. Annabeth was tired of being the bad guy and she was tired of not having Percy near her and she was tired of being a jerk to him and she was tired of Hazel looking at her bitterly and of Jason approaching her like a wild animal in case she yelled out at him. All those things were explainable and could be backed up by logic for them, but she couldn't take it anymore.

She slid down the wall and hugged her knees, trying to control her breathing. But crying was something that you could kind-of stop eventually, but not that early on in the tears, and not for Annabeth.

Quinn blinked, taken back by surprise. She knelt next to Annabeth and put a hand on her arm.

"I'm sorry. But you really _had _to know." Quinn said.

"It's not you," Annabeth managed to say. "It's me. I didn't want to break up with him, Quinn. Gods of Olympus, I didn't."

She went on explaining the dream she'd had and what Hera had shown her, the twenty million times Percy's fatal flaws had nearly gotten him killed, and how this time it couldn't happen like that. She put emphasis that she was too easy to capture and be used against Percy by Gaia, that she'd seen it happen in her nightmares. She told Quinn about how much she hated every bitter word thrown at him and how she missed kissing him whenever he said something stupid and punching him in the arm when it was really, _really _dumb.

Quinn hugged her and Annabeth put her head on her sister's shoulder. She just needed a hug right now. She couldn't believe she'd just said all that out loud. The less people knew, the colder Annabeth would seem and the best her plan would work. But at this point, she thought she might explode if she had to keep it inside her any longer, and the one person she trusted in this circumstance was Quinn. Piper would most likely find it too hard to keep it a secret.

"Well, you're a good actress." Quinn said. "We're all fooled. Even Percy."

"The worst part is that it isn't working as well as I wanted it to," Annabeth said. "It might not even work. Then if he does…" her voice choked. "Die." Her voice shouldn't choke; this was a logical step in the ladder of events and the demigod life, "then he'll have been miserable and he'll be standing in Elysium thinking I hated him."

"My gods, Annabeth." Quinn said hugging her. "You didn't have to keep it to yourself. Piper, me, Hazel even would've understood if you'd told her."

"No," Annabeth said. "I wanted there to be as little chances for the truth to show or come out as humanely possible. I won't tell Piper either, she has her own story with Tommy unfolding. I don't want my problems to scare her away."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"No," Annabeth said. "Nothing. This is between him and me. But… Quinn?"

"Yeah?"

"If… If I die… And he lives… I want you to tell him that it was all fake. That I was trying to save him, that I could never, ever hate him."

"You're not going to die, Annabeth." Quinn said.

"You never know. It's the circle of life."

"Yes, yes, I've watched the Lion King. But you won't." Quinn said.

"It doesn't matter right now," Annabeth said. "You never know. Just in case."

"Okay," Quinn said. For a few seconds Annabeth just forced herself to regain her cool before Leo came to check on his gauges or whatever.

"Quinn?" Annabeth asked. "Why did this bug you so much?"

Quinn didn't say anything for a second. "Because the guy I like is a prisoner of Gaia."

"Jedediah Adams," Annabeth remembered.

"Right. Him."

"I'm sorry to tell you this but we'd all figured it out." Annabeth said trying to grin at Quinn. She gave up on that idea pretty quickly.

"I'm cursed. Whoever I love, like _love,_ might get hurt, and I can't do that to him."

Annabeth straightened up frowning. "You're serious? Oh my gods, Quinn, that's horrible."

She looked at her knees. "I overheard Minerva and my father talking. The curse is that I can't marry, but I've always been too afraid… to even… like, risk it- even just telling a guy I like him. But so far this is the first time I want to."

Annabeth figured it was her turn to go all sister-mode and she hugged Quinn back.

"You know what, when this is over, you'll explain to him. We'll figure out how to break your curse."

"Okay," Quinn said. "But don't tell anybody. I'm working up the guts to tell Haze and Jo."

Annabeth smiled. Quinn was the shiest person in existence, so just seeing her be friends with Josie and Hazel was really good, and the fact that nicknames were springing up and being called across the Argo II by the youngest girls made Annabeth smile.

"Don't worry. You keep my secret, I keep yours." Annabeth promised.

"Deal," Quinn said.

Leo

He was driving and trying to understand what the Hades Josie was saying, but between the speed at which she was talking Spanish (which was, for what it was worth, a different dialect than Leo was used to) and the swearing that blew him away it was hard to figure out.

"Yo Esposito, I can't translate. Man up and talk English." Leo said.

"I don't want to swordfight," she insisted.

"Look Josie, we could get attacked any day." Jason said, more calmly than Leo expected him to be when he argued with Josie.

"Fine, I will cower in the engine room. I don't have abnormally large egos which forces me to be a hero. I'm fine with cowering." She said.

"And what if a monster gets to you while the rest of us maniacal egomaniacs are fighting? Josie, it's for your own safety and the second that you're on solid land, you'll get attacked as well." Jason said.

"He's right," Tommy said. "You might as well be able to carry your own weight."

"I am your future person. I tell you that in three days it will rain as if the gods are watching sad romance movie, and that tomorrow Piper will accidentally cut herself in the kitchen. Isn't that enough?"

"You can ask a hellhound if the weather changes its blood thirst next time you see one, okay? In the meantime, get into attack position." Jason said.

"I don't _need _sword fighting!" Josie insisted.

"Why the Pluto not?" Jason replied.

"I just don't!" She insisted. She dropped her sword and turned back, disappearing into the hull of the ship.

Cate

She stood in line with the third cohort. Brady walked down the line calling roll and coughing at people who didn't have their armour perfectly straight so that they'd fix it without him officially having had to correct them, meaning nobody was in trouble. Brady was chill that way.

That's when Joan trotted in front of the whole legion on Scipio. Cate had heard rumours that the first time Joan had tried to mount the horse, she'd nearly been bucked off. Now Scipio behaved better, and Cate dreaded to think about why he was now docile. She bet Joan hit animals. It just complimented the portrait of evil.

It made her smile when she saw Colin looking at them with his head cocked to the side, and then scramble to catch up with Joan.

The legion did a marching drill, the standard bearers stepped forth and then Joan spoke.

"Romans," she said for attention. "We have a new recruit," she said. "Colin Roberson, son of Mercury. He seeks to join the legion and I've decided to allow him."

"What about the auguries?" Someone from the Fifth cohort yelled out. The Third cohort tried not to laugh, but the Fifth was in as much trouble as it'd get so they just chuckled and shut up once they saw Joan's face.

"Recruit," she said looking at Colin. "Do you have credentials? Letters of recommendation?"

"What now?" Colin asked.

Joan rolled her eyes. She'd been sponsored by several important people. Amongst them, soldier who'd died in battle a few weeks after and the director of some big hospital in Philadelphia. Supposedly he was well respected in the medical world and he'd made some big advancements in the heart disease world. It made Joan quite superficial on the subject, which was why Cate had always been surprised that Quinn had gotten into the Fourth cohort. Cate knew how important letters were though; the only reason she'd gotten into the Third with some shady and vague magic goddess as a mother was because she'd gotten a letter from a demigod man who thought that she was 'spirited' and 'destined for something important'. She hoped that the fact that he was a legacy of Apollo meant nothing.

Joan didn't even bother explaining. "Will anybody stand for the new recruit?"

Cate took the step forwards.

"Cate Amjad, two years of service." Joan declared, sounding bored. "Since nobody else will, you may stand for the newbie. Does your cohort approve?"

The whole cohort looked at Cate who nodded encouragingly and they slammed their shields to the ground.

"My cohort has spoken," Brady nodded to Joan.

"Alright then. Behave newbie. Go join them." She said. Colin just walked past the legionnaires eyeing everyone as if he was afraid someone would jump out and bite him.

"Welcome bro," Brady said once he got to his side. "You can go stand next to Cate."

"The catty one," Colin nodded walking up to her and standing next to her. He flashed her a stupid smile like the Cheshire Cat.

"Shut up, we'll get in trouble." Cate said smacking his arm. He didn't stop and Cate bit on her lips to keep from smiling and turned her head to the far right to ignore him. She also ignored whatever Joan said, and then the cohort set off to supper.

Most of the Third stopped by and said hey to Colin. Hi, where are you from (Orlando, apparently), hope you like it here (as long as the food is free), watch out 'cause Cate's a hellhound when you get on her bad side…

"I know," he replied to that.

And so Cate punched him and they laughed and said he was an okay guy and requested his and Cate's presence at their table.

When everyone else had passed he turned back to Cate and went into Cheshire Cat mode.

"You're impossible," Cate said.

"Wow, and you've known me for under four hours."

Malcolm

He leaned forwards, carefully on the edge of the branch.

"You're about three inches away from falling, but really don't sweat it," Travis said.

"Not helping, Stoll." Malcolm said, adjusting the binoculars' dials. It reminded him of the coarse screw on a microscope, and the simile made him feel better because leading expeditions was totally new to him while microscopes were not, and this one was pretty much suicide.

_That's how every great leader starts, Mally, _he nearly heard Annabeth. _The first step is surviving the first mission in which you don't have a clue what in Olympus is going on._

"I see them!" Malcolm said once he spotted rows and rows of legionnaires.

"Where's my brother?" Travis asked. "Is he being burned or crucified or going through Chinese water torture or something?"

"I don't see any smoke," Clarisse offered.

"Not helpful." Travis said, genuinely worried and caring for his other half now that it was in enemy land.

"Actually, technically it is." Nyssa said. She leaned against the tree Malcolm was sitting on, watching with interest at all the activity until her part came in.

"No, I don't see that kind of set-up… Oh! I see him, there he is. And there she is."

"Malcolm now is not the time to look at hot Roman girls. There will be time for that after Ragnok." Will said.

"I mean the praetor, stupid." Malcolm said.

"What's she like?" Nyssa asked, prepping her notebook.

"Okay, so she's blond. Short blond hair, to the chin. Like Clarisse two years ago, except without the streak that looked like it got attacked by a weedwhacker. Her eyes are green," he said looking closely at the praetor. "She's wearing that regal armour Jason and Reyna were wearing in the IM. She looks mean."

"So she _is _Clarisse's sister," Travis said.

"I think she is a daughter of Mars," Malcolm agreed, ignoring the sound of flesh hitting flesh. "She's strong and built for fighting, I can tell you that. Tall, so maybe her legs are left unprotected in a fight. And big, so she might be used to winning fights with brawns not brains. And her muscles seem pretty compact so I expect that she's been training for a-"

"We don't need the play-by-play Sargent Brilliant; just tell me what to write."

Malcolm leaned back and put the binoculars down.

"Nothing. This isn't a face you forget. So come on, let's get back to the tent and let's figure out how to invade Rome with an army of Greeks." Malcolm said. He carefully lowered himself from the tree, figuring that if he fell now, he'd blow the image of leadership.

He, Clarisse, Travis (who was humming 'I knew my brother could do it, Clarisse owes me ten drachmas, I knew my brother could do it, Clarisse owes me ten drachmas…'), Nyssa and Will headed back to the command tent they'd installed. It was totally camouflaged, and designed by two senior counsellors in the 1960's (they were sort-of Annabeth and Beckendorf of the olden days and Malcolm was pretty sure one of them had made breakthroughs in the automobile world) to be that way.

They gathered inside and Reyna's dogs barked as greeting. Aurum put its paws on Malcolm's knees and he scratched his head, at least the gold dog was into him. Silver; not so much. But they both _loved_ Nyssa, and went to swarm around her legs as soon as she walked in after Malcolm- which was weird coming from the two regal and deadly Roman dogs. But probably because Nyssa's father had built them way back when, they acted like affectionate pups around her and she acted like their part-time master until they returned to Reyna (once Malcolm figured out how to free her). Nyssa's dark hair was held out of her clear face by a red bandana and she wore black cargo pants and a tank top that showed up defined muscles from excessive forge and punch-that-brother time. Her hair fell over her shoulder when she knelt down to pet the dogs, and her dark eyes grew a whole lot warmer around them. Like, instead of dealing with real life, Nyssa liked automatons better. She'd been like that since Beckendorf died and part of Malcolm felt sad about it.

"Okay," he said stepping up to the table where the map of New Rome they'd drawn waited. "So, we know that muster is held here," he pointed at the map, "The barracks are here. And Clarisse saw Joan come from here, which means that those buildings here are the praetor houses. Now we need to wait for Connor to IM us with the location of Reyna and the right times, then the others come from New York. We make a plan, set it up, attack, and all is well."

The air shimmered as they said it and everyone looked to see Connor, but it wasn't. It was Drew, and she stood in the center green. She had a way of looking glamorous at a summer camp made for Greek heroes, even if her face looked quite worried at the moment.

"Guys," she said. "We have a ginormous problem."

"What is it?" Malcolm asked. He'd never seen Drew remotely interested in activities, but she'd been totally willing to go with this plan the second Malcolm had offered it to the counsellors- one of the first to support it after Nyssa, Clarisse and the Stolls.

"We can't come to Rome," she said. "Not _all _of us."

"Why not?" Clarisse said. "Malcolm's been clear about this the whole time; we need everyone here right now, Takana."

"Because that would leave camp undefended and, well," there was a roaring sound, then the sound of crackling flames. Everybody in the tent either froze or flinched or reached for a weapon as half-bloods in the IM yelled to try and form lines and defences. "You all won't believe what's at our doors."


	65. XXXVII Malcolm, Cate, Jason

Okay, so I realise that two parts of the last chapter(s) was (were) unclear via beautiful comments on Fanpop/here

1) Malcolm/Nyssa/Will/Clarisse/Travis/Connor and the rest of Greece don't want to ATTACK Camp Jupiter. They just want to infiltrate it and free Reyna, which is why they sent in Connor in advance. A full scale attack would be suicidal considering the Romans are in their home territory and they can call up veterans from New Rome, plus it would kind of permanently damage the LET'S WORK TOGETHER idea.

2) Hazel only told Leo that she thought she was dying because Frank sent Leo to figure it out. Frank did not ask her himself because when he tried, she pretended she was fine as to not hurt him/make him panic/make him worry/ make things awkward. So now Leo is stuck with this gigantic secret.

Anyways, yesssss I saw the Mark of Athena cover and damn it, that looks like Percy and Jason about to fight. Gah. Why? The water and lightning clouds are kind-of a dead giveaway, so I'm assuming the horses are Blackjack and Tempest. If they actually fight each other we're all screwed, though.

I also read the chapter which included enough Leo to make me last until The Demigod Diaries.

I'm sorry that I'm late, but this reduces the amount of cliffhanger you guys have to endure. The chapter was actually up on Fanpop on Saturday, but it is more complicated to upload something on , so I'm lazier especially in times like these where I am exhausted and twitching and thankfully-soon-seeing-a-doctor and must I really list the homework I had over the weekend? But I will not give up on this story, so don't worry! Keep reading and DFTBA (yes, I am slowly finding out what Nerdfighters are).

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><p>XXXVII<p>

Malcolm

"Drew?" He asked. "Drew, what the Hades was that?" He asked.

"This enormous monster," Drew said. "I- oh gods, I can't even describe it."

"That's the sound of Kampê," Clarisse said. "I recognise it from the Battle of the Labyrinth."

Malcolm cursed inside.

"Sure." Drew said. "But it's not just her. We've got a good ring of monsters all around camp. It's ridiculous, it's like an army of them."

"Why aren't the defences keeping them out?" Malcolm said. "Is Thalia's tree okay?"

"It's covered in frost," Drew said. "The golden fleece… it's freezing slowly but surely."

"Khione," he said.

"That's what we thought. Lou Ellen says that the cold is seeping at the magic. She's working on it now, trying to keep it fed, but its powers are fading away and so are the borders."

"Well why are you talking to us? Create defences, build lines, form a phalanx- do _something!" _Clarisse said.

"We are," Drew said. "Cabin Five is going nuts-"

"Good!"

"But we don't have a half-blood to spare if we're going to protect camp!" Drew said. There was another roar and the crackling sound of flames- most likely being blown out of a dragon's razor-sharp-teeth-filled mouth. Drew herself snapped her head to the right and put a hand on her sword as two meds carrying a stretcher ran behind her.

"We need reinforcements here," Nyssa said. "We're five people. We can't infiltrate Rome and free Reyna when there are five of us."

"Unless there were five of me," Travis said.

"Well, we still have enough Pegasi to fly everyone out." Drew said. "As long as we, you know, go by twos. Blackjack came back from New Rome, and so did the Pegasi you took."

"Okay," Nyssa said. "But that would leave Camp undefended, and what about Chiron?"

"That's why I said we couldn't come." Drew said.

Malcolm's brain thought long and hard and nearly painfully.

At this point in time, the Argo II would be a few days shy of Greece. When that would happen, it would be war. They couldn't go to war if their strongest allies were led by someone who hated their guts. They couldn't go to war without Reyna; that much was clear. She needed to be freed, she needed to take control of Rome again.

But was Camp Half-Blood the price for that?

Cate

She met Colin and Josh at breakfast, both of which were making moustaches out of spaghetti. She didn't even want to know why Colin's breakfast was spaghetti.

"You guys are so sloppy." She said.

"Wrong, we are majestic." Colin said. "Why so late Kitty-Cat-Cate?"

"If you call me that one more time you'll be late for the next muster because of your wheelchair," Cate said. She slumped in her chair. "Joan cornered me."

"Uh oh." Josh said.

"What did she do to you?" Colin asked protectively.

"Nothing," Cate said. "Nothing, chill Colin. A child of Trivia made some huge graffiti on the side of the fort. 'JOAN GO HOME' in sparkling green letters."

"And she thought it was you," Josh said. "Got it."

"Was it you?"

"Sure as hell it was," Cate said, brushing her hair over her shoulder as a plate of scones landed in front of her. "I didn't tell her that, though. I denied it. If she were smart she'd ask our centurions about our particular use of magic, but a) she's not and b) she refuses to get help from anyone."

"'Atta girl, Kitty-Cat-Cate," Colin said, putting a quick arm around her shoulders. Cate didn't even push him away, she just picked up a scone and topped it with strawberry jam.

"If you call me that one more time I will be forced to murder you."

"Then Joan would murder you and you'd have to go to the Fields of Punishment for murder, and for everything I've done, I'd be there too. So really, it would be the same as here, except without Josh and with more Justin Bieber music for eternity." Colin said.

"You've killed dudes before?" Josh asked.

"Nah," Colin said. "But I figure that when all the small things add up…"

"Can we pick a more depressing breakfast conversation, please?" Cate asked.

"Puppies getting thrown into rapids." Colin said. She punched him and Josh laughed his butt off.

Jason

He'd woken up with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was going to go terribly wrong today. He hadn't told anyone but Percy about it, figuring that nobody needed the extra stress.

"Dude, I trust your guts and all, but some of us wake up with that feeling every day," he'd said.

For some reason Leo and Hazel were both agitated around each other, shooting each other nervous looks (or in Hazel's case the threatening-wolf-look). Jason just prayed that this wasn't some reoccurring love triangle. He prayed to _every god he freaking knew. _But so far Frank didn't seem to find anything suspicious, so that was good. Then there was Percy and Annabeth who couldn't look at each other without some telepathic diss fight happening and one of them storming away angrily. Followed of course by Josie and her undeniable talent at ticking people off; she could associate every spat going on with a comment that blew it out of proportions and out of Olympus. She even made Jason have to go take a walk on the enclosed space more often than he'd like. Jason had a feeling that Josie had a lot of hidden talents (that they would probably find out about the hard way) and could do many things, but she was a prodigy at this particular thing.

The only two people who didn't seem edgy/prone to be edgy were a) Tyson and Ella, but they always seemed to go with the flow and adjust as things went on, and Jason wasn't sure if it was politically right to call a harpy and a Cyclops 'people' and b) Tommy and Piper.

That last part made him smile. He'd watched her push away from him at Camp Half-blood for months, not letting him explain his past life to her. He'd watched her struggle at Camp Jupiter with Joan and the fourth cohort and Octavian, but Reyna too once she'd found out who the girl that he had been remembering was. He'd felt guilty about it. He'd been as careful as he could not to give her any reasons to build her hope up, but that was the thing about hope; it built itself up on its own.

He wasn't sure if it was obvious or if watching legionnaires fall in and out of love with each other since he was, like, two years old –whether he knew it or not- was to blame. But he could tell something was going on. And as long as she was happy, it was good. It was great. They all needed something to hope for since so many of those things had been taken away on that boat.

"I think we should play a game," Josie said.

"A game?" Percy asked.

"Yes. Tommy here isn't omniscient like everyone's favourite Esposito, so you're doing a poor job at, like, introducing him to this ship. Club. Crew. Whatever you guys consider this." Josie said.

"So what is this game?" Jason asked, ready to cooperate with Josie if this meant that she might cooperate with the rest of them in the future.

"It's called the One-random-little-known-fact-about-me game. You say a random fact about yourself, and the person who said something that not many people knew about wins."

"Did you just make this up?" Hazel asked.

"No, Gwendolyn Holly did. Or… is going to… There's a class full of third graders involved, I can tell you that."

"Gwen's going to be a teacher?" Jason asked. He could totally see parents handing their small children over to patient and optimistic Gwen.

"Apparently," Frank said. "Okay, fine, who's going first?"

"I vote Jason," Josie said.

He shot her a look and she smiled at him.

"Okay, one little known fact about me…" He said searching his mind. He was roman. He'd grown up at the fort where there was a) no privacy, b) always someone to figure everything out about you. But wait, there was something that people knew but didn't remember…

"Okay, so, I've been at Camp since I was two, right?"

"Two?" Tommy said.

"Yes, long story. Juno's been, like, grooming me to be her hero since I'm a little kid- but that's another story. So the only cohort willing to take in this chubby toddler was the fifth. Anyways, they used to make me march with them in the drills."

"March?" Percy said.

"They wanted me to figure out the drills and all that perfectly." Jason said.

"The mental images are priceless." Leo said. Josie said something in Spanish to him and they both started laughing.

"Right," he said. "Anyways, one day, I asked my Centurion/main babysitter why there was no armour for me since everyone else marching had some. She explained to me that I was small and people usually didn't come here at this age and blah, blah, blah. But the next day I woke up and there was a set of miniature armour at the foot of my bed."

"Oh, no way." Percy said.

"Oh yeah. I never actually found out, but I think it was from my father. Or Juno. Or both, actually." Jason said. "So I like, freaked out like a kid on Christmas morning and I was so ecstatic about having armour like the big kids and et cetera, et cetera."

With the looks Josie and Leo were giving him, he was regretting sharing his baby story.

"All the other legionnaires ended up calling me _Caligula; _Little Boots. And that stuck until I was, like, fourteen and I stopped being this ridiculously short scrawny kid, and most of them retired. But the really cool thing about that tiny armour is that-"

"They made it its own tiny case in the armoury?" Leo asked.

"Or does Reyna keep it polished on her wall and use it as ammo when you two fight?" Josie asked. Jason shuddered at the idea that she knew about Reyna.

"No, I still have it. It's grown as fast as I have and I've never stopped wearing it."

Leo's jaw dropped. "I _will _figure out how to recreate that magic." He said.

"Okay, you get to pick who goes next Big Boots." Josie said.

"You," he answered. She shot him a look and she settled in as if she was in a couch instead of sitting in the blob where the whole crew had gathered, not far from Leo and his steering station.

"Okay," she said. "Let's see, what's amazing and totally unique to me- hmm… Did I mention I can see into the future?"

"Yes," Quinn said. She looked too tired to catch the sarcasm.

"Too bad, that's a killer at parties." Josie said. Jason rolled his eyes- it wasn't like she'd known she could do it before. She must have been totally crept out about her powers. "Okay, let's see… 'Demigod' doesn't apply… Poo, you guys know all about me."

"Tell them about the dancing." Frank blurted.

"The dancing?"

Josie shot Frank the death glare. "Yes. That little thing I told you not to tell anyone else about, eh?"

"My bad," Frank said, not looking very sorry.

"Well, I suppose that's one tid-bit I have kept verysecret. I dance like Michael Jackson's spawn." Josie said.

"You're his half-sister if we're right about Apollo," Annabeth told her.

Josie looked like it was Christmas morning. Never had she been so engrossed in some kind of shock due to excitement or fantasizing- and therefore was left alone even if Leo was trying to make her dance.

"Okay, I pick Michael- I mean Valdez." Josie said.

"Well my friends there are many things you do not know about Uncle Leo," he said. "One of those things is that I strongly dislike fajitas. I think tacos are undoubtedly supreme and forever legit whereas fajitas are cheap copycats. I mean, put chicken instead of beef, change the tortilla a bit, mess with the folding and whoop-de-doo, they thing that now that they're their own food. And all those who disagree will never eat tofu from _my _tool belt ever again." He proclaimed. "That is all. I pick Piper."

"Okay," she said searching her brain. "Umm… When I was little my dad and Grandpa Tom used to tell me Cherokee stories a lot. And at the end of each one I asked 'so did they live happily ever after?' My dad always tried to tell me that there was always more to stories than pooff dresses and sparkly tiaras- but you try telling that to a superficial child. So one day he told me this Cherokee myth and he had the evil and dark black wolf cast into the dungeon and the good and pure white wolf marry another good and pure white wolf and have a million good-wolf cubs.

So then one day these kids were making fun of me and calling me Pocahontas. It made me super upset and I raged to my Grandpa about it. He just held me and rocked me and sung me this Cherokee song that I haven't heard since he passed on. When I'd calmed down enough he'd told me that Pocahontas wasn't Cherokee. And in my grade there was this jerk called Kyle Langley- who is a mix of Joan's rudeness and brawns-before-all-else and stupidity, Octavian's word playing character, Clarisse's violent nature with a hint of Stoll, but just a hint so that it didn't make him likable.

One day he came up to me, pulled my braids and all the beads were pulled out. And I'd sat down for an hour while this woman named Rose -who was everyone's Aunt at the reserve- braided my hair for me. I thought having beads in my hair was the coolest thing- so when he pulled them out and called me, once again, Pocahontas, I slapped him square on the cheek and said "I'm not Pocahontas and Pocahontas isn't even Cherokee" and then I called him a bad word I heard some older boys use."

"Oh gods of Olympus," Tommy breathed.

"Yeah, and I toped all that with a 'Besides, Cherokees are cooler because we have evil wolves and happy married wolves'. All that to say that Pocahontas wasn't Cherokee, my dad never edited a story for me ever again, and some people are jerks about Native Americans and the heritage. That's how I started being proud of it. Anyways, that's my story. Tommy, your turn."

"What? You're making me top _that?" _He said. "Charmspeaking gives you an unfair advantage in storytelling, by the way." He thought for a second. "Okay, I've got it. So, at camp we have something that we refer to as 'initiation' and everyone learns to love it. It's basically one big scare to a new camper that's twelve or older. The most senior campers take responsibility of it because it's our God-given right.

So for those of us who get to camp really young, we mostly stick together for life. I'm not kidding, the round of young children this year; they could be in retirement homes with that same friendship.

For me there was Symon, Marie-Pierre, Estefanìa, and Aleks who'd basically been born and raised at camp. We were about twelve when Dani Milano, who is now my best friend, arrived at camp. So the older half-bloods put the duty of coming up with initiation onto us.

So in the middle of the night all the girls in Dani's tent snuck out and stuffed their sleeping bags with dead squirrels from the traps we used to set up all around the camp." The second he said 'used to', hurt flashed on his face.

"Then the guys came over we started shaking the tent. What I think happened was that she got worried so she tried to shake Marie-Pierre awake, but ended up with the squirrels. Anyways she yelled and jumped back straight out of the tent with a knife. She nearly scalped most of us in the aftermath, and we woke nearly everyone up because there was a lot of yelling and laughing and Italian swearing; but it was really fun." Tommy said. "And it started her legacy as prestigious prankster."

"Wow," Percy said. "Squirrels, really?"

"Nobody had any better game that day," Tommy shrugged. "And we were twelve. Nowadays we're much more creative."

"Never speak to Connor and Travis Stoll, alright?" Piper said.

"Pick the next person," Josie said.

"Percy," Tommy said.

"Okay, this isn't the best anecdote or whatever about me, but it's my favourite one ever." Percy said. "So my mom has the sight, right? And she's a genius. She put two and two together and realised that if she didn't want the monsters to beeline for me, she had to diminish my scent. And that's when Smelly Gabe came in. He was the worst guy in the whole world, I swear to the Olympian council. He was lazy, he was a jerk, he gambled, he smoke, he drank- there wasn't much nastiness that Gabe _didn't _do, though I suppose he didn't cheat on my mom. There was nobody to cheat on her with, I suppose. But the worst of it is that he hit my mom."

"Oh gods," Piper said, her hands to her mouth. Jason found the idea so repulsive and crude, he wanted to hunt this Gabe guy down and pound his face inside his skull. Sally J-B was the nicest person Jason had ever met. Even if he was the reason her son was on the other side of the country, wandering in the unknown she still asked him how he was doing, offered him her amazing homemade cookies, and legitimately cared about him. Even if he was a complete stranger to her. She was an extra mom to nearly all the kids from Camp who knew her well, apparently.

"Yeah," Percy said bitterly, pursing hip lips and looking like he'd do things far worse than Jason could even think of to that man. "Anyways, my best friend Grover who is a satyr told me, on the first quest I ever went on, that the only reason she put up with this creep was that he was so disgustingly human, human in the worst way possible, that his scent covered mine."

"Oh- no way," Hazel said.

"Ah, Styx…" Frank said shaking his head.

"Oh yeah," Percy said. "So I went on my first quest and that was when I met Medusa the first time. Annabeth…" He rolled his eyes. "Annabeth, Grover and I, killed her. And I was kind-of ticked off at the time, so I mailed the head to my Dad with some kind of snarky note that I got away with."

Jason rolled his eyes at Percy. That was the most irritating thing about his cousin; the snarky attitude he had with the gods. Jason had been born and raised in the mythological world. He knew that you weren't supposed to get away with much on behalf of the gods. But Percy just got away with stunt after stunt, snarky remark after snarky remark. Maybe Jason found that disrespectful, or maybe he was a bit envious. Maybe both. Jason had spoken once to his father in the fourteen years of knowing who he was, and if he did something like that... Thalia would become an only child.

"But when I went back home after finishing the quest, I nearly ripped my stepfather's head off, and I may or may not have tried to jump him. My mom dragged me to my bedroom so I wouldn't do anything I'd regret, which I don't think I would've because I wouldn't have regretted it. We talked and I noticed this box on my bed, and sure enough, it was Medusa's head that my father had 'returned to sender'. So I told my mom, 'here's Medusa's head, you may like it'."

"Shut up." Piper said. "Your mother _did not…" _

"Oh yeah she did. She turned Smelly Gabe to stone and sold the statue and made a lot of money. Then she burned the head or something. Then a few years later she met my stepdad who she actually, like, loved and who loved her back, and they're married and it's all good now. But that's the thing you didn't know about me unless you're her," he said nudging his head at Annabeth. "My mom turned my old stepdad to stone with the head I cut off Medusa."

"Whoa," Leo said. "Your mom is _so freaking cool." _

"Oh yeah. It was like 'goodbye Ugliano!'" Percy said. Quinn chocked.

"Ugliano?" She asked.

"Yeah," Percy said. "That was his name, Gabriel Ugliano. Why?"

"Because I-I think –thought I couldn't be sure of course, I mean, names aren't unique, there are certain on-ones that repeat themselves throughout the-the, plus it was far from where I-"

"Quinn," Annabeth gently reminded her, looking curious herself.

"Right, drabbling. Okay, well, umm… You're pronouncing it wrong. It's Gabriel Ugliano," she said pronouncing it the French way.

"What?" Percy asked.

Quinn sighed. "Look, this taps into my family history. See, my grandfather met my grandmother while he was in New York, looking for work. They got married and moved back to where my grandfather was from, Thurso, Québec. He left my grandmother before Papa, I mean, my father, was born. See, his last name was Ugliano, so my uncles are Tyrone and Gabriel Ugliano. But my grandmother gave my dad her last name because she didn't believe that my dad should have the surname of a man who'd never cared. I never met my uncles, one died of cancer before I was born, and a few years before that the other became an alcoholic and then disappeared. That's why my dad wasted his life savings- funerals and treatment and rehab for them. It's why he worked in a bakery instead of becoming, like, a doctor or a lawyer or a historian. Also, why my last name is English."

"You're related to Smelly Gabe?" Percy asked. "God- the family genes are far apart."

Quinn blushed and shrugged. "Can that count as my story?"

"No, that was a side note and somebody surely knew that already. Well, _I _knew that." Josie said.

"That doesn't count." Annabeth said.

"Your turn Hazel," Percy said.

She sat forwards looking tired.

"I really don't know. I haven't had the most anecdote-full life." She said for a second.

"We can skip if you want," Frank said, probably worried about a blackout.

Hazel shook her head. "Okay, here's one. It's kind-of sad but it really shows how things… used to be for me." Frank tensed up, probably bracing for a blackout. "So, Nico and I took the bus from Los Angeles to the Wolf House after he… found me. Anyways, we boarded the bus and I was going to sit in the back like my Mom had always told me to, like I'd always done. But he grabbed my arm and asked me where I was going. He told me that I should stay with him because if I got lost we were screwed. I told him that I wasn't allowed to sit in the front. It took him a minute to realise that I was black and that I'd died before the bus boycotts. We sat in the first row behind the driver and he told me about Martin Luther King Jr. and all those people. That was one of the happiest days in my life."

Everyone sat around starring. It was one of those times where Jason wanted to go back in history and throttle the leaders there for letting things be so wrong. Then again, maybe if he'd grown up in that time he'd think the same way. The past was a foreign country: they do things differently there, that was what Lupa and the Centurions told Jason when he was a kid, and Roman traditions either intrigued or freaked him out. The idea disturbed and disgusted him. No. He'd have known that it wasn't alright.

"What?" She replied defensively. "Josie, Frank and Tommy are the only ones who have an excuse about now knowing American history. You should all know it happened. Things used to suck, and now they suck less. That's my story, that's my life. Frank; your turn." Hazel said.

"Okay… Umm…" He thought for a second. "This is one about my Grandmother."

"Take cover," Percy said. People laughed.

"He's not kidding." Frank said. "Anyways, so she's a senior citizen, like everyone's non-godly grandma. But this guy tried to give her a seat on the bus and she smacked him with her purse going 'You don't think I can stand up for ten minutes?' Then she got mad and walked off the bus, so we ended up, like, walking to the other side of town."

"The worst thing is, it's most likely true." Percy said.

"My grandmother is comparable to Chuck Norris." Frank said.

_Too bad she's trapped by Gaia, _Jason thought.

"I liked your Grandmother," Hazel said.

"You don't know who Chuck Norris is, do you?"

"Who's Chuck Norris?" Tommy asked.

"He can slam a revolving door," Josie explained.

Frank said, "Okay, Annabeth's turn."

Annabeth thought for a few seconds. "I got to Camp when I was seven years old, and my cabin wasn't cutting me any slack, which meant that I was playing Capture-the-Flag. So, as you can imagine, nobody took me seriously. No armour fit me, I was running around with this dagger nobody thought I could use, I was short, I was young… The first game, I was on the defence lines and someone heard a sound and they sent me forwards to check. So I walked away from the flag and came nose-to-nose with a couple of Ares campers. And they started mocking and gawking me because I was short and I had one knife against all their weapons and saying things like 'how can we hurt her?' The seven year old me was as prideful as my seventeen year old self is-"

"Imagine that," Percy muttered so low Jason was pretty sure nobody else had heard him.

"-So this guy gets close and he was trying to pet my hair, so I ran my knife into his hand and yelled at my brother that there were idiots from Ares by the creek. That was the moment when people started taking me seriously, and Luke –who knew me before I got to Camp- was like 'told'ja so' and won about seventy three dollars in bet money. He bought me ice cream every Sunday for a year. Anyways, Quinn, do you want to go?"

Quinn whipped her palms on her jeans. "Umm… I'm a bookie. Other than cohort trash-talk and middle of the night pranks done by other people, I don't have an anecdote."

"Than a fact we don't know about you," Josie said. Quinn's face darkened. Jason knew why; she'd already told them her deepest and darkest and most private secret. She'd told them about the voices and her fear of sleep.

"I d-d-d don't know." Quinn said. She was stuttering. Dead giveaway; she was hiding something. Her grey eyes darted.

"Sure there is."

"Can I skip my turn?"

"No."

"Skipping. Skipping rope. British English. Jumping rope. American English._" _Ella blabbered.

"Umm- guys." Percy said. "I don't think that matters."

"Why not?" Josie asked.

"There's something big coming through. Swimming straight at us."

Jason felt ozone and static and electricity in the air around him, as if his subconscious was preparing itself for a fight.

He ran to the railing, the bad feeling he'd had in his stomach since he woke up coming back to him at the same time that a horrible idea dawned on him.

Percy, Annabeth, Tommy and Piper were at his sides. Hazel, Tyson, Quinn and Frank had gone to the ballistas, Josie had followed, Leo had darted to the control center of the ship and Tyson was looking for big things to throw.

"There!" Annabeth said pointing to the water. A big V was cutting through the water, coming straight at them.

Jason's memory sparked.

"Oh Styx," he said. "Oh Styx. Leo- Leo- take off! _Now!" _He ordered. He hated ordering Leo around, but he was pretty sure that he'd hate everyone dying more.

"Jason, why the panic?" Tommy asked. "Do you know what this is?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "I-I've seen it before. I thought it'd be dead for so much longer… Leo TAKE. OFF. NOW."

Jason hadn't been this afraid much. A few of the near-this-level moments had been with Enceladus and Porphyrion the giants and when he'd left Reyna alone (curse him) at camp. He could block out most fears but this was like a phobia. That one thing that was so uncontrollably terrifying to him…

The Argo II was only hovering a few feet over the surface when a wall of pure force smashed into it and the boat flew back, the side hitting the water.

* * *

><p><strong>REPLIES TO ANONS<strong>

Coolgirl96- I answered your question up above. (not heaven, like, top of the page)

Ginormous pj ohhh fan (which I spelled wrong and apologise for)- They are known, technically. Percy, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Leo and Josie. Now, nobody ever said Josie's name out loud, but Hera told Annabeth something like 'she will only come when it will be her time and she won't seem like much. She will never do anything unless she feels that she has to and that the moment is right' (not an exact quote) which pretty much sums up Josie. No, I kicked Annabeth out of the running –you will see why- and Quinn too-which you will also see why.

Chapter 63

PanI await you the chapter- It depends on the book. I like a good tragedy, as long as it makes sense and the mains didn't just die for the Hades of seeing the main die. Plus I also like tragedies who look worst than they are so, like, a character comes back to life or never died. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

And you're right- I totally haven't! This is because of spasms. And everyone keeps mentioning to me this Ketos Troias Trojan sea monster- which I do know about and do like a lot because I think Jason's going to have to face him again in HoO.

Anon- Yes I'm sure!

Harryhas2424- Yes, but now she has training and self-confidence and she has the reflexes not to try to land on her feet, but to tuck it into a roll.


	66. XXXVIII Percy, Annabeth

**Hi everyone! Sorry I'm a couple days late. Anyways, enjoy this! My friends are starting to get more details on this story and they like (well, not like, they think I have depression and tragic problems: P) what's coming up for you guys :) They also like the fact that I'm counting on not all of the damage to be permanent. **

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>XXXVIII<p>

Percy

Everything was a blur to him. He registered the impact as if he'd been in a plane crash. He registered everyone screaming and swearing. He registered falling in the water and seeing the boat upside down in it, floating under it with the rest of the crew. He also knew that most of them were drowning.

He looked to the right and saw what was very likely the lovechild of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster, a squid, and a dozen other monsters and Hollywood creatures. Sometimes he was _so _glad he was part of Greek mythology; you learnt that all sorts of wacked up things existed.

This thing had a mouth like a basking shark with squid tentacles attached to the sides of it. Other than that it was your typical Greek sea monster, with a long body like a snake except about twenty times more powerful, fins with razor sharp claws and teeth like implanted butcher knives that made part of Percy want to sink to the depths of the ocean and hang out with the anglerfish for a while.

He grabbed the closest person –so Piper- and pushed her away from the thing charging at him, using the ocean's power to push her away from the Argo II and towards the surface. That's when he realised that the thing wasn't going for him. It was going for Jason, who'd drawn his sword but was about as great of a swimmer as Percy was a flyer because of the order of nature.

He grabbed his cousin and did the same, projecting himself down just in time to avoid getting a bite taken out of him. Jason looked at him, obviously trying to say something, but Percy wasn't Reyna and he didn't get this telepathy with Jason. Thank the gods.

So he just pushed his cousin towards the surface.

The beast hissed and lunged at Percy who'd pushed away its prey and was now public enemy number one. Percy just kicked towards it like a squid closing in on himself willing the ocean to come to him. He felt wide awake and better than he had since… well, since Annabeth broke up with him and then some. Since he'd last been in the ocean.

A powerful jet of water was concentrated from him and it nailed the beast in the bloodthirsty eye. The eye was really gross, it was as clear as crystal so Percy saw every single organ and tendon and whatever inside of it and he didn't mind hitting it.

It bounced back farther than Percy expected it to and that's when he saw Tyson helping him out.

Josie was a surprisingly good swimmer and cheeks puffed up with oxygen, dark hair swaying around the water, was helping out Hazel who wasn't. She kicked hard. Annabeth was helping out Leo and Tommy obviously couldn't swim, but he had a kicking motion nailed down. Ella was nowhere to be seen which meant that she'd taken off, as per usual during battles. They should keep an eye on Ella and panic when she took off.

_Everyone! _He tried to spread his thoughts to them but he wasn't sure if it'd work. _Get out from under the ship, it might go gown on you any second! _He stopped trying and just thought; _Tyson, can you hear me? _

_Yes brother, _Tyson answered.

_Okay, the thing's after Jason. I don't know why, but judging from the face he made on the boat, he knows that too._

_Okay._

_And it's really big and deadly and we're the only ones who can swim well enough to kill it._

_Okay._

_Ideas on how to kill it?_

_No, _Tyson said. _Should keep away from Jason. _

_Yes, okay._

_And Ella and Annabeth and Leo and Piper and Hazel and Frank and Quinn and-_

_Okay, away from everyone. Got that. How?_

_Like this. _Tyson said.

The thing with sea monsters is, when you realise that they're coming at you at a million miles an hour when they're already coming at you at a hundred miles an hour, you're screwed unless the person with you has a plan. Luckily, Tyson did.

He'd grabbed one of the big weapon crates that had been on the ship's deck and was now amongst the floating items, and hurled it at the monster. Cyclops had a way to move in water so that unlike the rest of creatures, their movements made sense and had an effect, like on land.

The monster was pushed back once more and Percy contributed with the water jets. Sadly, when he was underwater dealing with an immensely dangerous sea beast, water only did so much.

_Great, but we can't do that forever._

_Not enough crates. _Tyson said.

_Exactly. We need the others._

_They'll drown._

_Hopefully not. _

Percy willed the currents to take him back to the surface.

"Yo guys, this thing-"

"Ugly!" Tyson called, bobbing in the water behind man.

"Exactly!" Percy said. "And man, we ain't killing it on our own!"

"Look out!" Annabeth yelled. Percy turned around knowing by the look on her face that there was a monster behind him, because that was always the look she used.

Jason was yelling something out to them, and Percy was sure it'd be helpful if he wasn't busy hearing Tyson bonk on the sea monster.

"HEY!" Frank yelled louder than Jason because of genetic causes. "He says that Ugly's got a name! Ketos Troias!"

"Oh super, I love being on name-to-name basis with these things!" Percy yelled back.

"The Trojan Sea monster!" Annabeth dumbed it up for him.

Percy wasn't sure how in the world that helped him either, but he noticed a shark swimming in the water. He wasn't worried about it in the first place because sharks were amongst his favourite things living in the sea after, you know, his family; but then he realised that it was Frank. Jaws snapping, he went straight on for the monster. For a second Ketos Troias was too stunned to see some idiot shark come up to it and Frank managed to snap its cheek open.

Blood seeped through the water and floated around. Percy took a deep breath (mostly to calm himself down) and went underwater with Riptide. He anchored Riptide in the shark bite and then willed the currents to push him down into the deeps.

He dropped like he was on an amusement park ride, and he kept his sword in place making one heck of a cut. The beast roared and the water rippled in ear-popping waves that Percy was pretty sure would kill fish.

"Come at me, man!" Percy said from the deep. He was getting confident now.

The beast roared and went straight in the deep after him. Percy was hoping to go deep enough to screw up its vision, if the sea monster actually worked.

Annabeth

Her heart beat about as fast as it could go. This was torture. Percy and Tyson and Frank had disappeared a while ago and she had no idea where they were. They could _risk _going into the water (except for Jason, of course, who would most likely immediately drown), but not knowing where Ketos Troias was or what Percy and Frank and Tyson were doing and planning made it risky. It drove her insane. Here they were, eight half-bloods, all armed except for Josie, and they couldn't get close to the monster. They couldn't do anything. That was actually insulting.

More so, Percy was down there. Three half-bloods couldn't take on Ketos Troias, she knew it. If Percy truly did die right there and then… And she never did have a chance to tell him that it was all a bluff to try and save him… She shook the thought from her head. _Priorities, _she chided herself. That didn't work considering Percy was her priority, so she just focused on the monster.

They stood on the Argo II, which was basically floating upside down now. Leo was freaking out and had tried to convince them that really, it _was _a good idea for him to swim to the control panel and try and flick switches. Annabeth had to remind him that there were security measures just in case for this. Leo had made security measures in case a volcano erupted, so they were covered for pretty much anything ("If Pompei is reincarnated," he said, "It will _so _be around us and the boat, and I rather not die and lose my ship all in the same day.")

Enormous doors had closed over the entrance leading to the engine room and et cetera, and the portholes had shut on their own. Enormous life saving devices had gone off on the railings of the ship to help keep it afloat.

About two miles away Annabeth saw a few heads coming out of the water if she squinted really hard and assumed that they were heads and not driftwood or sea creatures or her imagination.

Piper twisted her hair to squeeze out the water. "Okay, we _cannot _just stay here. I realise that we don't have the water powers and la-di-da, but three people can't take on that thing."

Tommy put a hand on her shoulder. "Percy knows sea monsters than any of us, Tyson lives in the sea and Frank turns into sea creatures. If they need help, they'll come. Until then, drowning ourselves like mice is senseless."

Annabeth turned towards Jason. "You talked as if you knew this sea monster. Talk."

Jason sighed. "It was why Reyna and I became praetors, why the legion began to trust us. Reyna spent time on Blackbeard's pirate ship, and while she was on she heard them talk about the Mother of Sea Monsters and how it'd been seen. They were paranoid. They watched the ocean night and day for it.

It was two summers ago that the legion spotted something on the shoreline of San Francisco. Everyone was paranoid, but Reyna remembered the sailors' table and she immediately told the legion. They were organising this huge patrol thing, but Reyna didn't think it would be enough. Not by what the pirates' tales told her. She came to me and told me all about it and we made a plan. We got permission from the praetors to go out and execute it with the Fifth cohort, and Reyna was allowed to come. That's why I got the blessing of Aeolus, why I can control the winds. She said that I had natural talents for taking in that power. If we couldn't take Ketos Troias by sea, which we couldn't because we're Roma, we had to take it by air."

"And that's how it was killed," Quinn remembered. "I heard a lot about that, I came in a few months after it was killed. Instead of going to the sea, Jason hovered above it. The beast was killed in a matter of minutes."

"Hard minutes," Jason said. His face was dark. Annabeth really believed that this had been the hardest monster of his life and that deep down, he was terrified of it.

"How was it killed? Does it have any weak spots?" Annabeth asked. "Blind spots? Chinks in the armour? Unprotected skin?"

"Not really," Jason said. "You just have to get lucky and be quick to stay out of its way. Well, if you're fighting it aerial that is. I don't know about what they're doing…"

Nearly on cue Percy's head bobbed out of the water followed by a shark's back fin. In hasty head-up front crawl, he swam at them and yelled something they couldn't understand. Then he projected himself forwards with water powers as Ketos Troias' terrifyingly ugly face emerged. Tyson was somehow on the thing's head, holding on with two tentacles. He and Percy and Frank seemed to be yelling at each other with a mix of onomatopoeias that made it completely incomprehensible to anybody else.

"Get it, get it, get it!" Tyson yelled as the thing zipped by the Argo II.

Annabeth propelled herself off the ship. For a second she was weightless and then she hit her knife to the creature. It shrieked in pain and Annabeth pulled her knife out and cannonballed the second the thing started redirecting its path to the water. It shot itself down, like the world's most ADHD worm, always going back into the earth. Maybe it healed when it was in the depts.

For a second she looked underwater, the salt burning her eyes, and saw the three guys swarming around the thing's head, yelling out to each other. All Annabeth saw were bubbles, but to them it must have made perfect sense in whatever language they'd decided to speak.

Her lungs screamed for air and breath and she kicked her way back to the surface and swam to the boat, half expecting something to snatch her legs. Tommy pulled her onboard and she blinked the water out of her eyes.

"They're still on it," she said. She saw that Jason was hovering in midair, ready to zoom to wherever Ketos Troias emerged now that they knew that that was the strategy the guys were using. His lips were moving in a quick prayer to a god, probably Jupiter. Leo was in some sort of ninja position that would probably help him project fire. Or at least he thought it would. Piper bit her lips- she always got frustrated when her big reason to be, her key miracle-power was rendered useless.

Tommy had a spear they'd found in the weapon crates in his hand, and he looked ready to kill the monster Moby Dick style. Josie was the only one who didn't look armed and ready to fight, but Annabeth wasn't worried too much. She'd stay out of Ketos Troias' way, she knew it.

When it emerged again the Argo II's crew pelted it. Tommy did the same trick Annabeth had and got an afraid gasp out of Piper.

"He'll be fine," Annabeth promised, although she wasn't watching Tommy. She held back her weapon, looking for a soft spot it might show. Jason couldn't remember any from his fight with it, but Annabeth was sure there was one. So she watched. She noticed that the fins were wide open when the Trojan sea monster emerged from the ocean, but when the beast got close to the Argo II it closed up on itself.

_Behind the fins, _she noted. Once it passed the Argo II the fins opened up again, like wings to slow its decent through water, or a parachute deployed when a race car had to come to a stop. She was right.

"Bring it back!" She yelled, hoping that one of them had heard her.

Percy and Frank and Tyson would probably have the beast come again, so she turned to them.

"Behind the fins," she said. "That's the Achilles heel. It keeps defending them."

Tommy cursed in –assumedly- German, although it was Dutch for all Annabeth knew. "You're right, it's protecting itself."

"Alright, I can aim there." Piper said.

"I think I've got something," Hazel mused, her eyes closed. "Just hold on a second… and…"

A quiver and a bow and a few dozen spears popped back up to the surface. Hazel had summoned the equipment that'd floated off.

"Hazel, you're a genius, you little genius." Leo said. He reached into the water to grab a few weapons and pull them back when the monster re-emerged. Frank (or at least she assumed that the dolphin was Frank) skipped through the water dangerously fast, as if it were running, chirping to them alarmingly…

(You knew you'd spent too much time with a son of Poseidon when the chirping of dolphins sounded 'alarmed' or 'playful' or 'calm')

That's when Ketos Troias decided that it too had a special power, and Annabeth understood why the dolphin was as fast as it was. It spit out acid at all of them. Hazel was the first to get a taste of it.

She screamed in pain and covered her face and stumbled back. She fell to her knees on the boat. Leo grabbed her wrists before she fell off, projecting fire that burned the acid in midair, creating a horrible stench. Quinn hugged her arm to herself and dropped her gladus into the sea. Ketos Troias re-emerged immediately to get the rest of them.

Jason dropped out of the sky and tackled the monster, hugging it around the neck. He took his gladus and tried to reach behind the fins. Ketos Troias roared, nearly as if it recognised him, and it dove into the sea with a last spritz of poison. Annabeth turned to protect her face, hugging her arms to herself. Tommy pushed Piper to the ground to protect her face and turned about a fraction of a second too late, acid sprinkling his face. He locked his jaw and hissed in pain. Leo swore in Spanish and said something about it being worse than stepping on a Lego.

Annabeth's face itched for a second than it burned like an open wound sprinkled with salt and vinegar and pickle juice and any other acid she could think of. She sucked in a breath.

She heard this huge splash and turned around and saw –for a terrifying second that Jason had his sword behind the fins and it wasn't doing anything. The monster was out of the water and it was about to crash on the ship, where nobody was armed. It was going at Josie.

She screamed out something and flicked her arm at it as if she was meaning to punch it.

That's when its eyes glassed over. From the tail to the top, Ketos Troias sizzled like bacon on a grill and its scales became crumbling ash. In a last desperate attempt it snapped its jaws and would have taken a bite out of the Argo II if Jason hadn't stabbed his gladus further in and cascaded into the water with the beast.

* * *

><p><strong>Replies to the Anon population<strong>

Selenagomez8502- I actually have a few chapters already ready, I just choose not to post them so I don't overwhelm myself at times where I can't pose a chapter, or get too high demands. Also, so I have time to review and change things properly.

Weasalcookiez- Nope, not adding any new demigods. That's it, that's all, I am done. Also, weasels are sick.


	67. XXXIX Leo, Piper

XXXIX

Leo

It took about two minutes to flip the Argo II again. Which was a lot more complicated when you were out in the open sea with only two water-bending people who weren't busy saving Jason Grace, and with a load of acid-scorched people floating around the water. Oh, and when you were acid-burned yourself. Aye, aye, aye- he was lucky that Tìa Callida had only gone on him with peppers if this was the kind of resource Greek mythology had offered her.

Anyways, they flipped the boat back and it was waterlogged and gross but of course still functioning because it was not only Leo's baby, but also Old' Reliable.

Everyone was loaded on, and a First Aid kit was found. Hazel was forced to lie down and get her face checked out by Annabeth who was working with only one hand since the other was holding an icepack to her own face. The burns were quite ugly and gross and painful-looking.

Percy was helping out Leo.

"Dude, don't move. This stuff is powdered unicorn horn, nectar and Vaseline. It's supposed to be godsend."

"Man, that sounds like it can kill me." Leo said. "Like, one pinch too much and BAM, I die."

"Which is why you should stop moving," Percy said. "Like, now."

So Leo did and for a second he felt like he was going to blow up and die, but then he felt much better and awake and aware and energetic.

"This is the lovechild of red bull and raw caffeine." Leo said.

"I know, right?"

"Oh my gosh!" Quinn suddenly yelped.

Everyone turned around. Josie seemed to have passed out and Quinn could only hold her up so much since she was burned herself, the tips of her fingers bright red and even part of her face sizzling. Percy rushed over and watched her head as he laid her down on the deck. Hazel tried to get back up to see her, but Annabeth forced her down.

"Josie, Josie, you okay?" He said, trying to wake her up. He checked for breathing and circulation for ten seconds.

"Yeah, she's breathing." He said. "She's going to be okay."

"What was that?" Leo asked, kind-of worried for Josie. She couldn't just go blowing up sea monsters and passing out right after.

"I think she's just tired, her pulse is a bit slow." Percy said. Leo had no idea how Percy knew this. "Probably that thing she did…"

"What _was _that?" Hazel asked, her voice sluggish. Percy shrugged and looked at Annabeth who looked at him with a look of 'I've got something' but then she retreated back to treating Hazel. She had the same kind of cream/paste/caffeine substitute that Percy had used on Leo.

That's when there was this huge sound and Tyson appeared on the side of the boat, holding up Jason's body. Leo's heart pretty much stopped.

Tyson was holding Jason by the armpits and his legs dragged behind him, his head lolled on his chest. There was a nasty cut on his thigh that spat out blood about as fast as blood could be spat out. His neck was at a crooked angle and his face was pretty beat up. He was soaking wet too, which looked fundamentally wrong for Jason.

"Oh no," Piper breathed.

Percy and Quinn were the ones who rushed over.

"Styx, he just sliced his thigh." Percy said. "And something broke."

"Oh gosh, careful because if it's his artery-"

""If it's his artery he's dead meat." Percy said.

"No, he's just risking paralysation- here, give me that, I know how to do this." Quinn said, talking to whoever was near the First Aid kit.

"If he loses too much blood, we are screwed." Percy said.

"Shut up and do CPR," Quinn ordered.

Talking quietly, Quinn and Percy managed to stop the bleeding. They bandaged Jason up, and eventually Percy got him breathing on his own. Not, like, conscious, but breathing. Except they kept having to put more unicorn horn powder and nectar and nymph water on the wound- and out of all of them only the last was actually not going to blow him up if he had too much.

Leo met Piper's eyes and he knew that she thought the same thing as he did. _What if he dies now? Out of all those times and crazy stunts- what if it's now?_

Gaia would most definitely not let _his _soul escape.

Tommy touched Piper's elbow and nodded at her, in comfort. He made a small smile.

Leo was about to hyperventilate and he wished someone would tell _him_ it was okay. But not Tommy because he and Piper were way too lovey-dovey and clueless about it.

Josie had woken up a while ago, and Hazel was slowly talking her through everything. Even Josie kept quiet. This proved some serious stuff.

Quinn and Percy didn't stop and they got more and more creative with bandage angles.

"At least he doesn't have a spinal. That was what I was afraid of, see his neck?" Percy asked.

"Do _not _mention such thing," Quinn hissed at him. "That would have been a catastrophe."

Leo couldn't help but notice how much more authoritarian she was when she was saving an injured guy's life.

Percy swore and turned to Tyson.

"Hey, Big guy, where was he when you found him?"

"12 feet under," Tyson said after a second of thinking.

"Mouth open or closed?"

"Open."

"Styx," Percy sighed.

"Aspiration," Quinn guessed.

"Yes," Percy said.

"Do you think that..?"

"Probably. With his luck."

"Fair enough," Quinn said. She pinned the new bandage in place.

Percy put a hand on Jason's chest, right where his heart should be and one over his mouth.

He closed his eyes and whispered something, and Leo had no idea what aspiration was.

He got a pretty good idea when about five gallons of water were pulled from Jason's mouth and lungs thanks to Percy's water powers. A huge wall of water formed next to Percy and Leo couldn't believe that Jason had that kind of lung capacity. Finally the flow of water stopped and Percy just projected it back in the sea.

"This is the most disgusting thing I've ever had to do with my powers." Percy said as if Jason could hear them. "Gross."

Finally Jason coughed and the whole crew let out a gasp. Someone started clapping and everyone piped in, which just confused Jason more as he slowly sat up, wincing as he did.

Percy and Quinn dropped their shoulders and sighed. Percy initiated a fist-bump.

"What happened?" Jason asked groggily. Then his eyes kind-of hazed over and Percy put a leg behind his back to hold him up.

"You just totally nearly died," Percy said. "And we had to save your butt."

"Oh, so I missed opposite day?" Jason said grinning at Percy.

"Okay, you two are messing with each other, everything is fine." Piper said.

"Where in the world did you become a doctor?" Tommy asked Percy.

"Lifeguard training, man." Percy said. "They teach you some useful Styx in there."

Annabeth bit her lips as if she was remembering something unpleasant.

"I want to be a doctor." Quinn blushed. "If I'd have gotten decent recommendation letters I could've become a legion medic."

"Really? What kind of doctor?" Tommy asked.

"I would like to do research in the neurology department," Quinn said. "My friend Jedediah's mother has multiple sclerosis, and my grandmother has Parkinson."

There was a bit more of small talk and Percy complained that nobody asked him where _he _wanted to be lifeguard, so Frank humoured him and he said 'at the pool'.

"I completely forgot the fight," Jason said after a while. "Ketos Troias… it was back?"

"Yeah man," Leo said. "And you tackled it and nearly drowned and you helped Josie killed it when you stabbed it at its newfound weakness and Josie did… I don't know what the heck Josie did."

Everyone turned to Josie.

"You vaporised the monster," Hazel said.

"Well, I also read the future." Josie said. "Why does this surprise you?"

She looked pretty shaken up herself, though.

"I think I know why," Annabeth finally said.

"Shocker," Josie muttered. A few people snorted and even Jason smiled.

"Funny," Annabeth said. "Hilarious. I think this just proves that your father is Apollo."

"He blew things up?"

"No, all gods do that." Percy said.

"Do you mind?" Annabeth frowned. "Thank you. Anyways, Apollo had a number of epithets- which are sort of like labels showing different sides of a god. In one of them, he was Apollo Hecatebolos, god of sudden death."

"So…" Josie asked, either sceptical or confused.

"So, I think that maybe it's one more inheritance." Annabeth said.

Josie looked at her confused.

"It makes sense," Quinn said. "Another epithet of Apollo was Apollo Ioimios."

"I'm sorry, how do you pronounce that?" Josie asked.

"Ioimios," Quinn repeated not realising that Josie was sarcastic. She must be exhausted- well, more exhausted than usual. "It means plague. People thought that he shot arrows all over the place to cause plagues and injury and death. That's partially why he was considered a healing god, because one who caused a plague could take it back. Maybe that's part of what you do, just sending death out."

"Right," Annabeth said. "Something along those lines, I think. Maybe someday you'll have the chance to ask."

"I suppose," Josie said. "But would these rays work on a god?"

"I doubt it," Frank said after a while.

"That's too bad," Josie said. "I could sure use a plague up his nose to thank him for the heads-up and claiming."

She leaned back against the railing with her hands behind her head.

"But this of course means that I was right," she said.

"About what?" Jason asked. He kept trying to touch his cut for some reason -maybe pressure relieved the pain- and Quinn kept slapping his hand away.

"About having to learn to fight," Josie said. "I am never touching a sword again, _entender_?"

Piper

She knelt next to Jason who had been seated so he was propped up to the railing by Tommy and Frank with the clear instructions of 'don't move and if blood seeps through the bandage, call Quinn'.

"If you try to spoon-feed me again-"

"Don't worry," Piper said. "I've come to terms with the fact that your pride and independence streaks are ridiculously large."

"I can eat on my own," he said.

"See?" Piper asked. "Right there, _right there." _

Jason laughed.

"I just came to make sure you were okay because you scared all of us to death. You weren't there to see Leo's face but he was beyond upset, and Hazel looked like she was going to pass out. Quinn and Percy worked their butts off, and I don't think Frank or Annabeth stopped praying for a second."

"I apologise?" Jason asked. Piper rolled her eyes.

"Percy said that he thought he got all the water out of your lungs,"

"Charming thought," Jason muttered.

"-But if you get chest pain…"

"Tell him or Quinn immediately because I might drown from the inside- which is called both aspiration and secondary drowning, yes, I got that." Jason said.

"Like I said," Piper sighed. "We really worried about you. Majorly. If you died I think most of this would fall apart. Rome would hate Greece more, the Argo II would argue all the time, nobody would keep Josie in line and that's about twice as dangerous as before…"

"Okay," Jason said. "But really, I think that the people on this boat are strong enough to do whatever they need to do without me or anybody else. I don't feel like much of a leader on this trip, to be honest with you."

"You have your moments," Piper said. "And that's not true. We all have somebody holding us up and keeping us going on these monster adventures. Percy and Annabeth used to have each other. Frank stays strong for Hazel's sake. The three younger girls keep each other going. You just hold a lot of people up, including me. So don't die or I'll charmspeak you back to life and kill you so badly, Hades won't take you."

Jason laughed. That's when Piper noticed Tommy was around the end of the deck where she and Jason were sitting.

"Hey Tommy," she said. "Here to remind Superman over here not to move his legs?"

"No," he said. "But don't move your legs, Jason. Leo sent me. He's making supper and he doesn't know how spicy to make the tacos."

"Spicy," Piper said.

"Mild," Jason said. "Quinn doesn't like spicy things."

"Right," Tommy said, "I'll tell him." He walked back under deck to the kitchen.

But Piper got a bit suspicious when they didn't have tacos for supper.


	68. XXXX Leo, Piper

**Guess whose internet connection died? ME! I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to stop posting. Even now the internet's not super reliable at my place, and I don't have it at my usual laptop. The guys on Fanpop thought that I was dead :P **

**Anyways, sorry for the wait, and today you're getting, like, twenty million chapters to make up for the lost time. **

**Disclaimer: Me no own.**

* * *

><p>XXXX<p>

Leo

The battlefield was raging and bloody. Bodies fell left and right as canons and ballistas blew, Greek fire exploded, hidden underground mines went off under the feet of demigods and steads, unicorns and Pegasi reared back. An elephant was charging. Greek and Latin yelling was all over the place and Leo heard about three words of English, and all of them were swearing.

It took three seconds for Leo to find Jane. She was wearing armour and a regal purple cloak, and seemed to be in charge of a cohort. She rode on a horse herself, and her mare galloped back and forth amongst enemy lines, pushing those who didn't wish to be stampeded back, her sword keeping the mare and herself safe as she got daring. Nearly… reckless…

Someone else rode up to her, and Leo recognised the girl as Malinda- the other daughter of Vulcan, the one who controlled fire and was the legion's little pet. The one they were scared of being bitten by but the one they put up in battlefields and in the center of plans. She was the one who'd gotten Cedric executed. According to the badges on her chest, she'd been promoted to Centurion. The old one must have died.

"Over there," she said pointing to a girl on a horse, "Is Genevieve Larson. She's the Greek leader."

"I'll get to her later," Jane said.

"I don't doubt it."

"Now go, to your cohort Malinda. You weren't given responsibility to make your armour pretty."

As she turned her horse away, Leo was sure that Jane had never wanted to stab someone as much as she wanted to stab Malinda right then. The look in her eyes was murderous. Leo would never shake it out. He wasn't even joking, it terrorised him.

Jane dismounted and whispered a word. The horse's head dropped and Leo was surprised to see that it was actually an automaton. Well, not so much. That was what had gotten Jane so far in the eyes of the fort, wasn't it?

She took it from foot, and took charge of a cohort whose Centurion had fallen seconds before. They pushed forwards, annihilating a few Greeks and breaking a phalanx formation. The thing was: the legion's turtle and the Greek's phalanx both looked unbreakable and deadly. It was like a brick trying to tear down a brick wall and a brick wall trying to resist when bricks were thrown at it.

Eventually they were stopped by a phalanx. Jane ordered to break and fight single battles.

She fought her way towards the Greek leader on a horse, Genevieve.

In a flash, Leo remembered that she'd been included in the circle of letters between Jane and Cedric Bailey.

Jane was busy duelling a Greek boy twice her size. He didn't have a chance. Leo understood why Jane's nickname was Stealth Attack Stone.

He fell to a heap and Genevieve's horse galloped towards Jane. The praetor looked up in a flash and froze, looking at Genevieve right in the face. The other girl had reddish brown hair straight to her shoulders, and brown eyes. Her helmet didn't quite mask her immensely pretty face. Her sword was outstretched and Jane didn't even suck in a breath. She didn't even gasp when the blade ripped through her face. The horse reared on its back legs and while Jane was down with her hands splayed across her face, Genevieve's sword went right down the back of her armour and Jane fell to the ground as the romans around yelled. Arrows were launched towards Genevieve who ducked. Her horse reared back, nervous.

"I'm so sorry, Cedric loved you. I saw it in his words." She whispered to Jane Stone.

"No," the dying legionnaire said, blood soaking through her armour. "Thank you."

Genevieve retreated and the Romans surrounded Jane, covering for a few who dropped to their knees and talked quickly in Latin, asking questions about pain level and what happened and just oh-my-gods-we-need-to-get-her-to-a-medic. They rushed her off the battlefield as the Greeks let out a cheer.

The scene changed and Leo saw Jane lying in an infirmary-tent. The back of a dress had been ripped open to expose her injuries to the medics, and pieces of her armour were lying around. Blood dripped down the armour like rain on a car window. She lay there without moving much. A medic sprinkled unicorn blood on her back and the wounds closed for a second, and then the skin tore from itself re-exposing the ugly pink and red wounds. She was losing so much blood it made Leo think of Jason's injury.

"It won't heal," the medic hissed to another.

"Work harder," a guy who looked like the other praetor said. "If Jane Stone dies, we basically lost this war. The Greeks cheer up. The Romans go in depression. The scales will turn, the favours will stop, and we'll be the laughing stock of Olympus and America."

"She's dying, sir. There's not much to do."

The guy smacked the medic. "Go." He said. "This is not an option."

The medic worked harder and finally looked up and shook his head.

"Look at all the blood-stained clothes, the blood-stained cloth, the blood-stained bandages and the bloodstained sheets. She's dead, sir. She's dead and there's nothing we can do about it."

"Bled to death," one of the legionnaires guarding the door said. "Who'd thought we'd see the day when…"

The other shook his head and they both muttered silent prayers to Charon and Pluto and whispered _ave Jane Stone_.

The scene spun to a change. Leo was on a train platform. People were wearing old fashioned clothes and even more were loaded up into a train and pouring out the windows, waving and saying goodbye. Leo realised they were all men, and then he realised that they were all soldiers.

One of them took a girl's hand.

"Don't worry Beth. I'll be back soon. Before you know it, I'll be home being boring old me writing my boring old books and loving wonderful you again." He promised.

"Take care of yourself, Stephan. I know you think you're immortal, but you're not, and we're not always this lucky…"

"I know. Don't worry. Just be good at home, and help your Mama and one day I'll show up at your doorstep with that ring I keep promising." He said.

"I hope so."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Somehow Leo could identify the language that the girl was speaking as she dragged the boy down the path. Her dress was pale yellow with a pattern of red flowers and their stems, a streak of white down the center of the front. Her hair was orchestrated into a complicated due.

"You have to run," she said in French. "Safe isn't safe and up is down and, and…"

"Don't," the boy said. Leo couldn't see much of his face, but his hair and eyes were dark. "Breathe deeply or you're going to lose it again."

The girl closed her eyes and nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry. But you are in such danger, Pierre, such danger…"

"I always get out of it," he said.

"This isn't a game." She snapped. "This isn't petty. My father is serious this time. He insists that you're the reason why I refuse this marriage."

"But I am."

"Yes, I know. And now, so does he because you _admitted it. _My father is a Land Lord, Pierre. Do you think he does not get what he wants often?"

"Well it's time that he got used to not getting it. What are you going to do, Juliette? When he wants more and more and more? You're not a wish granting machine and you shouldn't strive to be. That's not fair."

"Who said anything about fair?"

"I did," Pierre said. "And I'm not letting go of that. You will have a happy life, and if the Symposium says that it's going to be with me, than so be it. Run away with me, Juliette. We can roam France. We can go to Italy, England, lands far away. I can steal one last horse from the stable. We can make do. We'll live."

"I know," she said. "And I… I want it. _Dieux de l'Olympe_, Pierre, I want it. More than anything. More than an addict wants his drug and more than a child wants his mother."

"This is about Madeline, isn't it?" Pierre asked.

"A… A bit. If I'm not there to marry into Gabriel Lancelot's family, then she will. She's only fourteen, Pierre, I can't let that happen."

"So what, you're going to take a hit?" Pierre anchored himself and he wasn't taken a step further. "You know, your father will use her as a tool to get more status sooner or later. Like a tool, Juliette, like a tool! You're worth more than that."

"I agree," she said swallowing tears. "I agree Pierre, this is horrible and I dispise it as much as you do."

"That is impossible."

"The only impossible thing is avoiding it," Juliette said. She let go of his hand.

"So that's it? That's how our brilliant story finishes?"

"If you stay in this county any longer he will kill you. He will send dogs and men and maybe even the gods after you."

"I'm a child of Hermes," he said. He took her hand. "I can outrun them all, Juliette. Twice over, I promise."

"For how long?"

"As long as I have to."

"What if that's not enough?" She asked. She tugged her hand closer to her and ripped a chain off her neck. A ring hung on it, a plain gold band that must've been inexpensive but seemed to glow in the night. "Take this back. I'm not going to be part of why you might die."

"Well either way, either solution," he said, "part of me dies."

A regal Roman soldier stood on the side of a jail. There was the sound of hinges but he didn't turn his head. A girl wearing a scratchy looking muumuu-style dress was pushed forwards by two more soldiers. She fell to the ground on her side and tried to scratch at them, but they seized her and brought her into the cell.

One of the soldiers approached the guard.

"Watch her well, she's a witch." He said.

"It's a gift!" The girl yelled at them.

"A poisoned one," the soldier snapped back.

"Poison is what I'd be trickling down your throat in the middle of the night if I had it my way!" She snarled.

"Watch her," the soldier said before leaving. The soldier stayed inanimate long enough before springing into action and picking the lock with some kind of ingenious tool Leo recognised from Beckendorf's special selection back at Camp, and the door swung open. He rushed in and brought the girl to her feet. She rested her head against his armoured chest and she gasped.

"Marcus," she gasped. "I didn't think you'd…"

"Of course I did," he said. "You are worth more to me than a million legions and a million titles. I'd sell my armour and life and soul and honour before losing you. Shh, shh. Come with me, do you have any magic left?"

"They tried to beat it out of me," she whispered. "Beat my mother's powers out of me, fools."

"Okay, okay, shh. I'll take it as a no, and even if it's a yes, save your energy. Come with me, there's a passage. Gaius told me about." He said, half-holding her up.

Leo woke up with a start that morning.

"Morning, Sleepyhead." Piper told him. "Someone was tired from killing sea monsters."

He blinked and processed all the information.

"You have no idea," Leo said.

Piper

She was washing dishes that pretty much everybody had worn out in the kitchenette.

It was a beautiful sunny day and if Piper hadn't drawn the short straw she would not be down here on maid-duty.

She heard the steps creak and looked up and saw Tommy coming down the stairs. Square jaw, gorgeous brown eyes, tanned and burned by the wind, the sun and (recently by) Ketos Troias' acid.

"Need help?" He asked.

"Oh, I'm fine." Piper said. "Go get some sun."

"I've lived outdoors for the last seven years of my life," he said. "Really; I'm fine when it comes to getting sun."

He grabbed a rag and started drying the dishes anyways. Piper didn't really feel like talking him into going outside.

"So big fights like yesterday," Tommy asked, "Do they happen often?"

"No, not really. We see minor sea monsters and harpies that aren't Ella every day. As you see we often have to get them out of our ship. But big, big fights… are rarer. Why, did it scare you? I wouldn't blame you. Every new superpower that pops up is scary, and that thing was huge."

Tommy said, "Well. I was really afraid. Mostly for you."

Piper looked at the dish water and bit her lips so her smile wouldn't show extraordinarily too much.

"When I saw you throw the spear I was scared that you'd jump like Annabeth did. I didn't know you were a spearsman."

"It's more useful in a forest than a sword is," Tommy said. "Hunting and such… swords reflect sunlight."

"I've seen you wield both perfectly." Piper said.

"I'm far from perfect," Tommy said.

Piper had so many replied to that. _Not to me. _

Maybe people didn't start liking each other in a matter of days, she wouldn't know. She'd never liked someone in the way people 'liked' each other, not in real life anyways. But that was how she felt about Tommy, and gods be cursed if she was being messed with by some patron goddess again. She didn't think this was fake. Some things couldn't be faked, even she knew that. And she thought that guys who were sweet and polite and strong and thoughtful and kind and interesting and endearingly shy at times–and as an added bonus, not hard to look at- couldn't be fake. There were barely enough real ones in the world anyways.

But if this was what liking someone felt like, then she was already waist-in.

"We all are," Piper said. "You're still a step ahead of us."

"I suppose it's my turn to disagree, because I don't think you are. I think you're right there next to me, assuming I'm a step ahead of the population." Tommy said. His eyes averted and he looked away from her shyly.

"Umm," he said, "I'm sorry that yesterday I interrupted you and Jason."

"Interrupted?" She asked. "Don't worry its fine."

"I was looking for you, and I didn't think that you and Jason had anything between the two of you but-"

"Wait, what?" Now he was confusing her. "Me and Jason? Oh gosh- that was a long time ago, and it wasn't even real."

"Really?"

"Really," she promised. "No, I was just checking up on him and hoping he wouldn't die out of his own stubbornness. He's a good friend."

"Oh," Tommy said. A shy smile tugged his lips and Piper suddenly smiled too. "I'm sorry then. Everything on this ship is mixing me up; maybe I should accept Josie's flashcard offer. Do you think she still has them?"

Piper laughed. "No, I think she threw them overboard in frustration. Or maybe she's using them for target practise."

"Yeah, that's what Josie needed, the power to kill things on sight." Tommy said. "Useful, but dangerous. I'm not sure I'd want that."

"Why not?" Piper asked.

"Because if I lost control and hurt someone I'd hate myself forever," Tommy said.

"You wouldn't do that," Piper said handing him a plate to dry.

"I don't know," Tommy said. "I'm used to not having any special powers. The shock might also kill me."

"Okay, _that's _a valid reason." Piper said.

For a second it was quiet and Tommy asked,

"You said that you and Jason… that it wasn't real. How?"

Piper licked her lips, trying to figure out how to explain it.

"Okay, so the thing is, Jason woke up without any memories and Leo and I were there with a ton of fake ones. In our heads, Leo was Jason's best friend, and I was his girlfriend."

"Oh." Tommy said.

"Yeah. So he was clear with me from the start that he didn't know where home was and who was waiting for him there. Then one day we all woke up and met in the center green before Leo went into Argo-II-building-exile, and I saw it in his face that there was a girl he remembered, and that he remembered that he'd made promises and given his heart to her."

"That's hard," Tommy said.

Piper shrugged. "He was nice about it."

"That doesn't mean it was any better." Tommy said.

"I was the one who made it complicated by avoiding him after that. But, you know. If you love something let it go, and I do love Jason. Like a friend now. Either way I let him go."

"Then do me a favour," he said. His voice made her look up to his face. She'd never seen his eyes that close. They were solid, completely brown. As solid as he was.

"What?" She asked.

"Hold on to this," he said. He cupped her face in his hand and lowered his mouth to hers. He hesitated for a second, as if afraid of something, and then kissed her. Piper's eyes closed and she dropped the glass she was holding and she didn't even care. She put her hand behind his head. She felt so much energy and happiness and surprise going through her, as if someone had shot it into her bloodstream with a syringe. Part of her left the Argo II and felt like it was on Olympus- heaven, that is. It was her first real kiss aside from that time Jimmy Handerson had jumped her in seventh grade and she'd thwacked him behind the head.

The only thing she did to Tommy was kiss him back and tangle her hands in his hair.

Leo

Leo had been asking so many questions to Annabeth, then Quinn, then back to Annabeth, then Quinn, then Jason, then Quinn, then Annabeth that the daughters of Athena had just given him a book so he could find the word that he was looking for himself. He found it- that thing that Jane had mentioned to Venus.

"_According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other half" –Plato's_ The Symposium

Leo froze. Did that mean that Jane and Cedric were two halves of a human? He imagined their faces smashed together and connected to a guy/girl body with four legs and four arms. It wasn't pretty. Zeus had done well by splitting them all up.

But that still made Leo think. A lot.

Did that mean that those two people at the train station- Beth and Stephen…? Were they actually Jane and Cedric? Reborn a bunch of years later?

He was thinking these very important things when the autopilot yelled at him to turn right in a voice that scared him into remembering Nyssa for a few seconds. After looking left and right and convincing himself that his sister-that-can-beat-me-up wasn't around, he spun the wheel.

He heard footsteps, which was weird because everyone was lounging, even Percy and Jason (mostly because since Jason was hurt, Percy couldn't spare with him; they polished their souls instead). Annabeth and Quinn had a book splayed on their laps and they were trying to figure out something of a spat in a historical debate they'd had in the morning (he was beyond scared of what dinner conversation was like at the Chase/Hunter dinner table), Tyson was reading to Ella and spinning the book every now and then to make sure it wasn't upside down. Hazel was showing Josie some 1940's dance move (apparently she excelled at dance way back when). Frank was reading The Art of War (again).

Leo looked over his shoulder and saw Tommy and Piper.

"Ah," Josie said looking at them. "I see that you're back, how nice. Name your first child Oliver for me, will you?"

Piper and Tommy both blinked and Piper's jaw lowered. Tommy kind of looked like a deer caught in a flying ship's headlights and in a second Leo totally got what Josie was saying. He was going to say something, but Josie had already done it ultimately.

Piper chose to ignore it. "By the way, I should apologise, I was a clutz and I broke a glass."

"Broke a glass," Josie repeated. "So that's what Americans call it."

Leo nearly choked and died on his own laughter, and Tommy told Josie to shut up in Spanish, but everyone understood even with the language barrier. Leo was really amused at the moment, but there were too many things to say going through his head to pick one without being unfair to all the other things to say.

"Hey, if your dad played chess, maybe you can teach me," Piper told Tommy finally to break away from everyone's stares.

"Of course," Tommy said.

Leo turned back to the boat's instruments and to his thoughts.

* * *

><p><strong>Replies to the Anon population<strong>

Copy- Umm, if you are talking about the idea of making a Mark of Athena fanfiction, then it's a kind of free-for-all idea. But if you're talking about the text specifically, no, I haven't copied it. I've been writing and sweating and brainstorming over it since October. If you have seen any copies of this text floating around the internet with people taking credit for it, then I would appreciate if you would please tell me. I enjoy leaving comments on those stories on the likes of 'Hello, my name is HecateA, and I assume you owe me since you're reposting my story on your account'. Great fun. I've had it happen to me before and that is _not cool. _

EditorGirl- Hi! Thanks, I'm so glad you liked it so much! And yes, there's a split after Reyna is thrown into jail. I go from Mark of Athena to Books of Tartarus. Yeah, spelling is my enemy. And Tommy's real name is actually Thomas, but he's been called 'Tommy' at the European camp forever. I never actually said it in the story, but it was because there was another Thomas there, from England, and so to avoid confusion they just labeled him as 'Tommy'. And yes; I am.

PJHOOfand4evr- Thanks!

selenagomez8502 – Yes, I do mucho research. Also on Ancient Rome in general. And Thalia is kind of captured by Gaia at the moment, but she'll come back eventually. I'm glad you like it so much!

RyanMcCann- Hola! More Quinn, some Hazel and Leo and Piper. Gotcha ;) I try to use as little swearing as possible, and stick to what Riordan uses. Like 'Holly Hephaestus', 'Styx', 'Go to Hades', 'Son of a gorgon', etc. That's a part of the PJO books I really like, but sure, I'll review that. It wasn't offensive, don't worry.


	69. XXXXI Cate

XXXXI

Cate

She woke up. Sun was shining, birds were chirping, Joan was ruling… Hmm, it had at least half of the potential to be a nice day.

She was shuffling her feet to the bathroom to try and comb her hair into decency when the first 'Happy birthday!' came to her. She turned and saw Britt, the new Centurion since the last one had decided to bolt from Joan and retire. She thanked Britt as everyone asked 'is it your birthday?'

"No, we're practising." Britt said. She was Brady's sister, a daughter of Mercury. By the way.

"Yes," Cate said.

"Fifteen, hmm?" Paula said. "Wow, Caty-Cat's all grown up."

"Isn't it exciting?" Cate grinned.

When she walked out of the barrack- one of the last, as per usual- the cohort was there, as well as the fifth cohort, both of which had now basically merged into what was possibly the Fifty-Third Cohort anyways. When she took two steps everyone started bellowing out 'Happy Birthday'.

If you knew the third cohort, you'd know that the singing is not pretty, but to Cate it was like a symphony. This was home. Bad singers who sung anyways and serious romans acting like idiots for the sake of sakes.

"Thanks guys," she said smiling and brushing her hair over one shoulder.

Colin showed up panting, as if he'd been running. "Wait, did I miss something?"

"It's Cate's birthday, bro." Brady said. Brady called everybody bro, but in this case it worked out.

"Oh sweet- we should sing Happy Birthday!" He said.

"Dude where where you, we _just _did." Britt said.

"Oh. Poo. I missed that."

"It's okay, we can do it again!" Dakota said.

"Oh Good gods," Cate said, rolling her eyes.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to-"

That's when the fourth cohort ganged up on them.

"Go to breakfast now," one big guy who was acting as Centurion while Joan stunk up the praetor villas said. "No disruptions allowed."

"This isn't a disruption, this is praise to Cate Amjad." Colin said. "I seriously think you should, like, incorporate it into a Roman festival."

Most of the Fifty-third cohort laughed, but the fourth cohort didn't find it funny.

"Break it up," he said.

"Miles-" Gwen tried saying.

"I said break it up, Holly, or else we're sending you back to the New Rome infirmary wing where you belong." Miles snapped.

There was the sound of flesh on flesh and everyone nearly died because Gwendolyn Holly had just physically hurt someone outside training or battlefields. Even Colin seemed to get it.

"You do not in any way say that I am not meant to be in this legion Miles, we have Jane Stone for that. I am not a nurse unless I decide I'm a nurse, I can be a soldier as much as you can and I _will _say it to your face because I don't care what your snotty thief-praetor said; I am a Roman Soldier and I have seniority on you in ways that you can't even comprehend with that battle-bruised brain of yours." She hissed.

Everyone was too shocked to reply. Nobody even yelled out 'Seize her'.

"Fifth cohort, move out." Gwen said in a cold voice before marching off. The cohort walked after her and a few of the girls stopped and slapped Miles on the same cheek as Gwen had. Cate did her due diligence and hit him too when Brady and Britt brought them out. Josh and Jedediah insisted that Cate had her own slap technique and that Quinn should examine it and make a chart for it. She wasn't sure about that last part, but she knew that she slapped a mean slap.

"It's my birthday, you can't punish me." Cate said.

She sat at the usual table where Josh would soon join her and Colin: and in better times so would Quinn and Jedediah.

"Umm, I get that the Miles dude is a smurfing smurf, but what was that about?"

"Gwen was studying to be a doctor in New Rome before the Argo II left," Cate said. "She'd retired. The only reason she was here was because Frank, the other Fifth Cohort Centurion, was off to Greece."

"So he told her to leave the fort?" Colin asked.

"Hmm, it goes deeper than that." Cate said as food landed in front of her and Colin. Colin had fish and chips –yesterday he'd explained that he didn't respect the rules of food association with meals- and Cate had a slice of vanilla confetti cake because she felt like it and it was her birthday. An _aurae_ had even put a candle on top and she blew it out before it was considered a disturbance. "Way back when New Rome was run by testosterone, women didn't fight in the army." She said as she picked the candle off the cake and licked the icing off the bottom.

"Oh gods, what did they do all day?"

"Well, we worked in stores and the infirmary and even sometimes in the stables or forges." Cate said.

"No, I mean, the dudes in the army. What the heck did they do without girls?" Colin asked. Cate smiled a bit.

"I don't know. Regardless, we were often nurses. Jane Stone changed that; she hopped into place during the Civil War and said that if Rome wanted to win it needed more manpower- and I only say manpower because it is the only term I can find, really they needed girls to fight. So we did, and Jane was the first praetor without a ball of crud and dried grass for a brain. But saying to a girl 'go back to the hospital wing'…" Cate shook her head. "It's sexist. It's sexist, and rude, and sexist and not something I want to hear on my birthday."

"Oh. Yeah, it's like saying 'don't fight in the legion'. How rude. Screw Miles, man." Colin said.

Josh swung into his seat. He was a legacy of Mercury on Dad's side, and his mother was a _nebulae _which was funny because Josh Ayano's head was 'always in the clouds' so to speak. "Happy birthday to a certain so-called beautiful person at this table," he said.

"Why thank you," Colin said putting his hands behind his head like a supermodel. Cate snickered.

"Okay, magical and so-called beautiful person." Josh corrected.

"That doesn't work either. Cate _is _beautiful." Colin said. Cate smiled at him.

"See, Josh? He knows how to pick up girls." She said. "Thank you Colin."

"Is that confetti cake for breakfast?"

"Yeah," Cate said.

"Are you serious?" Josh asked.

"I know, I'm missing the vanilla ice cream, but I thought that that'd be overkill." Cate said.

"Confetti cake was outgrown at the age of five." Josh said.

"Leave me alone," she said her mouth half-full. "You're just jealous because you're eating Frosted Flakes."

Brady sat down next to Josh.

"So Cohort Fifty-Three is planning on bellowing 'Happy Birthday' during muster, except we're not using Cate's name, just go with it." He said.

"Cool." Colin said.

"Sweet, yo." Josh said. Josh was in the fifth cohort, which meant that often he was out with them before he got to the table.

"I'm so inspired. My fifteen years of breathing is striking rebellions. I like it." Cate said.

"Eat your cake, don't get big-headed." Josh said. Cate smashed her finger into her cake and dotted his nose with icing.

"My nose!" Josh yelled just as Colin let out a loud, "Don't waste icing it kills whales!"

"True that," Cate said. "My bad."

She had about two more slices of cake (food was delicious, health was regardless) before Josh talked.

"Hey, did your dad send you a card?"

"Card? Dad?" Colin asked.

"Remember Colin, we went through the fact that a baby has a mommy and a daddy, and that when they love each other very much, or get very drunk…"

"Never mind then. Just- card?"

"Yeah, my dad sends me a card every year for my birthday." She said. She turned onto her back on the dining sofas. "But I don't know about this year. New Rome is off-limits, remember? Can't even sneak away during the War Games, and since that fifth cohort newbie got spotted while sneaking out to get medical treatment, they have guards, like, everywhere. I don't think I could pull off a heist like that. Not without Quinn's master planning, anyways." Cate said. She blew her bangs out of her eyes and when she saw Colin looking at her, concerned, she turned back towards the table.

"But that's alright, I've got cake." She said.


	70. XXXXII Percy, Leo, Jason, Piper

XXXXII

Percy

Tommy and Jason came down the stairs of the Argo II.

"Yeah man," Leo said. Tommy looked away from Leo's hyper face and Frank, Percy and even Jason clapped that painfully slow clap.

"What Leo means to say," Percy said, "Was nice."

"Nice what?" Tommy said.

"That you kissed Piper. Man, everybody knows." Frank said. "I'm sorry, but when Josie talks, she talks."

Tommy looked away.

"Don't worry, everyone here except Leo's kissed a girl. Most of them on this ship." Frank said. Jason's face hardened as if he remembered that the only girl not on this ship was Reyna.

"We just wanted to see how easily you blushed," Jason said. "Not easily, it appears."

"You're all idiots," Tommy said, shaking his head, looking away from them all.

"That's fine with us," Percy said.

Leo

Leo pulled Hazel aside.

"I feel like I am being pulled apart fibre by fibre." He said to her.

"I think you need a medic for that." She said.

"No, not literally. This is how you're making me feel." He said. She looked at him clueless. "Hazel, everyone is noticing how not-well it's going with your general health! Frank is noticing and when he asked me if there was something wrong and I knew but I'd promised to you that I wouldn't say, do you know what I was stuck saying?"

"What." He asked.

"Stress. Freaking stress! I had to _lie to Frank! _That is so not cool on so many levels. Haze, I know you don't want to hurt him, but you don't get to pick if you get hurt in this world. Trust me. And you can't always pick who you hurt either, so please be honest with him."

She looked at him, eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh gods, Leo," she said.

"Was that too theatrical? Deep?"

"No, but… Josie gives me these looks every now and then too so _she _knows, and Quinn's getting suspicious, and Jason thinks something's going on and there's so much going on, so much to do, so much to live for, so many things that I'm supposed to do in this prophecy and o on top of that…" Hazel buried her face in her hands and broke into sobs right in front of Leo.

"I don't want to tell people I'm dying." She said between sobs.

He blinked and pulled her into a hug hoping like heck that Frank was really busy right now. She cried for a while and said it again.

"I don't want to die."

Jason

It was his patrol duty and he forced Quinn back to sleep since she didn't seem very agitated or troubled at that point in the night. She'd tried to insist but a) Jason was a bit firmer than she was and b) she was exhausted. Jason wondered how it felt like to always be exhausted. To never feel good and up to whatever the day promised. To spend every second wondering and planning how you were going to get through the day or achieve something without burning all your energy. Quinn was freaking amazing because right now, Jason felt exhausted himself and he slept perfectly.

Percy and Annabeth had calmed down and stopped jumping at each other's throats at every given moment. That was good, but the crew was still unsettled.

Josie's attitude had taken some getting used to and now they were about as used to it as people could get, but she was still so stubborn sometimes… Jason couldn't help but think of Octavian and Rachel. All three of them acted like they had answers that they weren't going to share- except he actually believed that Josie had some. She frustrated him. Jason got frustrated at people who didn't show respect to others around them, not just their superiors. The way Josie talked about the gods sometimes… Apollo especially, but she had some colorful adjectives and colour-commentating during most myths Annabeth told her.

Then there was Piper and Tommy, who'd finally kissed yesterday. Jason was happy for Piper, and Tommy of course. He just hoped that there would be no awkwardness because that could throw everyone off balance.

Hazel's blackouts didn't come in the bucket loads that they'd come in before, but there were times where she'd go very still and breathe so quietly Jason wondered if sometimes she just wasn't breathing at all. She looked as sick as Quinn was tired sometimes. She didn't say anything, and she hadn't stopped being Hazel, but it got Jason worried that everything about her was interconnected and it would all go down eventually. Plus, Leo kept looking at her funny. Not a funny that Frank should be worried about, but a funny that everyone should be worried about. Jason was worried that soon it would blow up and everyone would get hurt. He had a feeling that Frank, Leo and Hazel would be the ones taking the biggest hits.

Leo was being Leo. Thank the gods for Leo, Ella and Tyson because they were the three people on the boat who weren't worrying Jason.

And sometimes he felt a little guilty because he worried about things that shouldn't be his number one priority. His number one priority, according to the roman rules he'd grown up with, would be the crew of the Argo II and the Greeks and Romans back in the camps. Really, Jason worried about Thalia.

His sister was trapped in the earth somewhere just because he was a prophecy child. It frustrated him. He couldn't see her, touch her, talk to her, make sure she was okay, ask her for help… She was his last family, and even if family shouldn't bother him after all these years of not having one at Camp Jupiter, he didn't want her to get hurt. Especially not because of him.

He kept seeing the same faces held captive by Gaia, one for each of the half-bloods on the ship. Frank's grandmother, Quinn's friend Jedediah Adams, Sammy Valdez, Nico di Angelo, and of course Thalia.

Sometimes they looked better than other times. He'd seen Thalia and Nico, stubborn Big Three Greek half-bloods that they were, parading around with black eyes and cuts and bruises. Jedediah's wrist was crooked now. Sammy Valdez was a ghost so he didn't count, and Mrs. Zhang seemed content with waiting it out for some reason. He worried that one day his dreams would show him a cage without Thalia, without Nico, without Jedediah…

But what worried him more than that?

Reyna.

He remembered all the nights where she'd wake him up and tell her she couldn't sleep. She didn't say it, but Jason had figured it out; she felt like the walls were closing in on her, a phobia she'd developed in Blackbeard's ship. It'd never let go of her. It was bad enough to be blindsided and trapped in the tiny cells under the Principia, it would creep out anyone. Jason hated those cells. He always made a point to make legionnaires do something stupid, like push-ups, instead of actually spending a night in there. But for Reyna it would be twelve times worst.

He remembered sleeping in the grassy area between the two villas, wrapped in his blanket, she wrapped in hers. For a while that hadn't meant anything –except in Jason's brain and heart- but the last few nights he'd spent in Rome sleeping under the stars with her, it had. She'd been his girlfriend. He should be the one standing next to her in that cell. He should be the one telling her that the walls weren't going to close in around her. He should be the one saving her.

He knew that it was what she'd asked of him, but he didn't want that from himself. He didn't want to be sailing away from her when she needed help. Duty and the heart was never, ever the same thing.

"Jason?" Someone asked. He looked and saw Percy and Tyson.

"Hey," Jason said, straightening his face so he looked more serious and steady and calm.

"Our turn," Percy said. "You can go sleep now."

"Carry?" Tyson said. His injury was still too bad to walk and Quinn looked at him with murderous eyes whenever he mentioned that he might try. Usually he stayed on deck, but the rest of the time he relied on someone for support to walk around the Argo II. Annoying? Yes. Mildly embarrassing? That too.

"No thanks, I'll just chill here." Jason said. "Maybe even sleep under the stars."

He thought of Reyna. Not a bad way to fall asleep, when fatigue and his cousins' conversation blocked out the worried thoughts.

Piper

She was getting pretty ticked off at the universe. Particularly at the all-mighty strength she most commonly referred to as 'mom'.

First boy she'd kissed, like, really kissed because she liked him and he liked her and it was wonderful: it ended up being not real.

Okay, cool. After a few months of being really mad about it, she could handle and brush it away.

Second boy she'd kissed because she liked him and he liked her and it was wonderful: now not talking to her.

She could deal with the little look Leo gave her all the time, the look he gave her _just _to get on her most fragile nerves. She could handle Josie calling her out for it on deck; whatever, Josie did weird things and knew all. She could even handle both of them tag-teaming and telling Piper that their children would be adorable, asking her to describe his tongue with three different adjectives or something crazy like that. But something told her that Tommy couldn't and she wasn't sure why. Her sneaking suspicion was that this was the shyest boy she'd ever met. Not in the oral presentation oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-pretend-I'm-sick-or-fake-an-epileptic-seizure-to-get-out-of-this way. After all, he spoke a thousand languages and he was the unofficial leader of a camp. But in another more subtle way; like how he'd kept the ring secret from even Dani, or how he'd only told her about his father and the cancer, how he didn't ask questions openly, how he didn't talk about his feelings (though that was just a trait of the male race and/or female too). He didn't like talking about things that made him feel something big.

Her fingers reached to the ring on the chain. It rested against her chest and she looked down at it once more. She was half tempted to put the ring on, jump into the sea, yell a million curses, and climb back onboard, but the ring didn't cover sound.

She sat down next to Annabeth and looked her friend over. This was the only person who could answer her question properly, but it was such a sore subject…

Annabeth looked up at Piper and closed her book, the calm face she wore while reading now gone.

"What Josie said the other day," Annabeth started, "Was she right?"

"The prophetic can-kill-on-sight daughter of Apollo who can also dance like a trained professional, you mean? Of course she was right."

Annabeth smiled, but it looked a little sad, as if the reason for smiling was painful. Piper didn't want to rub-it-in, but at this point she was thinking primarily of Tommy, and her and Tommy's possible future as an item and kind-of considering Annabeth's not-dating issue as a hole she'd dug herself into. Not that Piper wasn't still trying to navigate exactly where-what-when-how the so-called 'Percabeth ship' had gone down (or how she was going to break it to Lacy), but Piper just didn't get it for now.

"I thought so. You've kind of been skirting around from one another." Annabeth said.

"So it's, like, that obvious." Piper asked.

"When Josie yelled at you to name your first child Oliver, _then_ was kind-of obvious. This is just painful." Annabeth said. She was clearly trying not to laugh at Piper, which was not cool.

Maybe that was what Tommy was shy about. Freaking Josie's blunt comments… God, if that was the root of the problem she would force Josie to return to sword fighting lessons with the use of charmspeak.

That was when Percy, Leo and Josie appeared followed by Jason who seemed to be blowing in the air. That was when Piper saw that Jason –shouldered by Tommy and Percy- seemed to be pushing and Iris Message through the air with his wind powers, which Piper hadn't thought possible.

"Greek conference," Leo announced. "Yeay! We just needed Jason to drag the IM down. Thanks Jason. You can go now."

"You can do that?" Piper asked.

"I just found out." Jason said. "Malcolm made, like, an equation to figure it out and tell me how to do it…"

"Priorities!" Piper recognised the voice of Annabeth's little brother. Malcolm was sixteen with puff in the place of hair, and it got even puffier when he got stressed or agitated. It must be about a foot long right now.

Frank and Tommy helped Jason back up to the Argo II's deck.

"Malcolm," Annabeth smiled, and then it faded. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

"He wouldn't say because he wanted our unbiased opinion about something and he wanted to talk at all Greeks at once." Percy said.

"Well, technically the opinion will be biased." Malcolm said. "It's about Camp Half-Blood."

"Where in Camp Half-Blood _are you?" _Annabeth asked. "I don't recognise that tent and- wait, are those Reyna's dogs?"

They barked and Piper recognised the sound.

"Nyssa, keep them out of the tent, this is serious!" Malcolm called over his shoulder.

"Plus they haven't peed in, like, twelve hours and I'm not sure if they pee acid. Either way Malcolm would have an aneurysm if they peed in the tent." The voice was clearly Travis.

"I'm pretty sure they're better trained than that," Clarisse grunted. "If their owner's a daughter of Bellona…"

"Trained? They don't need to be trained, they are state-of-the-art mechanical feats! What I wouldn't give to have the blueprints and make, like, cavalry horses or elephants of these…" Nyssa's voice protested.

"Oh my Gods- I am _so _with you!" Leo replied loud enough for his sister to hear.

"Nyssa, can you please take them out. And take Travis with you. Will, can you check on Drew through another IM?"

"Drew?" Piper asked.

"Malcolm, details." Annabeth asked again. Malcolm turned back towards the IM.

"Right, we, well, apparently _I _have a big decision to make because things have taken this crooked and wild and unsafe turn." Malcolm said. "The thing is I don't want to make it without your advice."

"Okay, we'll help, just explain." Percy said.

Malcolm filled them in on Reyna's message –Annabeth and Piper grinned at each other; Reyna was the smartest child of pure war and bloodshed the world had seen in millennia- and on how they were actually in Rome, and Khione was freezing Thalia's tree so it stopped working, and camp was being attacked.

"So we, like, have to make a choice here." Malcolm said. He sounded about as comfortable with that as he would if you trusted him with the last panda in the world and said 'take care of it, don't let it die'.

"Allies to save the world, or Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said.

"Don't lay it out like that, it's not that simple." Percy said.

"I'm not," she said. "Camp Half-Blood is one of the two only places safe for demigods. If they leave to go to San Francisco right now, what are they going to do? All the monsters will zero-in on that little tent."

"Okay," Piper said to calm both of them down. "Annabeth's got a point. Reyna's trapped in there. According to the maps we've got, we'll be landing very soon. After that, the world goes to war. Can we do that without the Romans?"

"No." Leo said.

"Why am I here?" Josie asked.

"Because we're betting that you're too snarky to be Roman," Piper said. "I'm sorry, but it's looking like…" She thought of her first view of camp. She'd never felt magic like that, or seen something that beautiful. She thought of afternoons spent lounging around the basketball courts with her sisters who'd point out the hottest or sweetest children of Apollo, meals pretending to listen to gossip she didn't care about. She thought of Chiron's office and all those pictures (and suddenly realised that Chiron would have to put that picture of Percy and Annabeth through the shredder). She thought of the cabins and how weird and unorganised their architecture was and how much she loved it and how familiar and normal it felt to her. She recalled Capture-the-Flag and having conversations with Leo while he was, like, dangling from a harness to nail the boat's hull together or something. Archery lessons, meals, the legends at the camp fire… It was all too fabulous and dreamlike to loose. Some –most- demigods had nothing if not those summers.

But the world was kind-of important too.

"Dude, I hate to say this, but… yeah." Leo said. "That sucks. It's like 'would you rather fajitas stop existing, or would you rather have a puppy-sized elephant."

"Malcolm, you have to ask the troops to join you in Rome." Annabeth said ignoring Leo.

"What?" Percy said. "There's got to be a second solution! One that saves everything. This is Camp Half-Blood, there always is."

"Percy, we're not in some video game designed to have exits and choices." Annabeth said.

"You can always come up with something," he encouraged. "What are we going to do after the apocalypse? Without a camp, we'll just have two hundred or so half-bloods run amuck the United States which is a) bad for the country and the economy and whatever, and b) bad for all those half-bloods."

"The romans would take us in Percy, it's…" Piper said trying to calm him down.

"We can't give up on Camp Half-Blood." Percy said. "That's like giving up on being Greek."

"This camp is a place. Places get destroyed and rebuilt all the time and though it hosts magical children, this one is no different." Josie said, suddenly calm and wise.

"This place is all two hundred and seventy three half-bloods have," Percy said.

"And the world is all seven billion and a hundred something people and animals and living organisms have, too." Annabeth said.

"Well I don't know, kill the world, you kill cancer and, like, malaria." Leo said trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"True. But it's the only place _Chiron _has." Percy said.

Everybody shut up. Even Josie seemed like she'd gotten punched in the stomach.

"If he really is dying- he's still dying, right Malcolm?"

"Right." Malcolm said uncomfortably.

"Then how is he going to get out of there? Last time we got an update, back in Rome he couldn't move without his wheelchair. Nobody can save him. Nobody can fly him out. Nobody can wheel him out without getting chomped, and he can't stand his own ground." Percy said. "If we lose Chiron, we might as well all start saying we're Roman, because there is no way we can pass down or recreate all that past and knowledge and history; all that Chiron gives us."

Nobody contradicted him. It was true. Piper realised that this was why Malcolm was asking for help.

"I don't have Chiron with me," Josie said. "Nor have I ever met him. But I'd think that he would say something like this: He is an old man who has fought old wars and read old books and counselled old, but great, people. He is a centaur, and centaurs are born, they party –though I don't think he really has-, and then they die. He will say that perhaps, it is his time to die, and that if it is; he would rather die under the shadow of his Greek students allying themselves with Lupa's Romans, thus ending a great tragic and violent past, and of the world becoming safer.

Also, he would rather die at home."

Nobody said anything. Nobody acknowledged that that was _exactly _what Chiron would say. Not even Malcolm looked that surprised that this random girl knew all of this.

"You're right." Percy said. "That's what he would say. But Chiron also once told me that I would die at the age of sixteen, and I'm turning seventeen in a month. Chiron is wise and smart, but not always right."

"In this case he is." Annabeth said. "We have no choice Percy, and if it weren't for your freaking fatal flaw, you would see this like the rest of us and _a million things would be a million times easier." _

Percy got up. "If I have such a 'freaking fatal flaw', Miss Hubris, then I suppose I'm too bad off for this conversation and that my opinion that everything important should be saved doesn't matter."

"Fine." Annabeth said getting up as well. They both walked off.

"By the way Malcolm, your sister is single." Leo said, although it didn't sound like much of a joke.

"Got that. What do I do?" He asked.

Leo and Piper looked at each other.

"What Percy and Annabeth both said, although they don't know they did." Josie said. Piper looked at Josie and said it in clearer terms for Malcolm to understand. "Abandon Camp. Go help the Romans. Prepare the troops. Save the world."


	71. XXXXIII Cate

**OK guys, so there's something that I must speak of before I write this story, because everyone has been asking it, and it's been making me lose sleep for a while (not literally, but you get it).**

**1) I appreciate the enthusiasm you guys have about this story and the characters. Really, it thrills me! But would I honestly tell you if Percy and Annabeth are getting back together or not? No. I would not. You guys are just going to have to wait and read.**

**2) The last next-book-of-the-heroes adaptation I wrote is kind of tragic at the end. Long story short: since I didn't know who Hazel was, I made her a daughter of Trivia (like Cate is). A really nice girl who was as scarred by Gaia as he was, loved horses, much liked by the readers. She also ended up falling in love with Leo, and he fell in love with her. It was the first time either of them had gotten that close to people since Gaia burst into their lives. She ended up being the storm, but when the prophecy said 'to storm or to fire the world must fall', it meant that Gaia was going to kill one of them to try and weaken up the other. She ended up killed Hazel, and Leo never fully recovered. Yeah. So the guys on Fanpop don't trust me on the 'Happily Ever After' aspect of my stories.**

**Anywho, I'm scared that I'll lose a lot of you guys when certain… events unveil. I can't say anything further than that, but my story isn't a tragedy this time around. It'll be like Rick Riordan's books. It'll look impossible, but really it just looks worse than it is and every little thing is gonna be alright. _Well, nearly every little thing._ **

** Peace out and DFTBA. **

* * *

><p>XXXXIII<p>

Cate

Cate woke up, unsure why. She looked up and heard hitting against the window she slept right under. She spotted Colin, his face smashed against the glass. When their eyes met he went into stupid-Cheshire-cat-grin-mode and Cate's only thought was –_you better not have woken me up in the middle of the night just to be a retard. _

Then he motioned for her to come outside. It was totally illegal to be outside your barracks at this hour under the Joan-rule, so she pulled on a Hogwarts hoody that'd been a joke-gift and skateboarding shoes that she wasn't allowed to wear for training before tip-toeing out of the girls' bunker.

"You must have a real good reason for-"

"Shh," he interrupted her. He grabbed the fire escape ladder –whose exact use had always been a mystery to camp, and whose origin seemed to be a prank pulled by the fifth cohort eighty years ago- and pulled it down. He climbed up and she knew well enough to follow him.

He sat on the edge of the roof and he handed her a little grocery-store pack of nine miniature cupcakes with pink icing swirled on top, picture perfect like in movies, and topped off with huge round sprinkled.

"First, I apologise for missing the sing-along this morning and mocking the confetti cake at breakfast," he said.

"A: wow, do I get cupcakes every time you mock me? And b, where did you get these, Co?"

"That information is useless for your pretty little mind," Colin told her. "Two, here you go." He handed her a brown envelope. Her jaw dropped when she saw the sender's address and the stamps.

"You snuck into _New Rome?" _

"Oh yeah," he said. "Got friendly with Terminus, mentioned that I was a free soul protesting about anybody else but him putting restrictions on Rome, and presto. I'm invited back anytime if your dad happens to send you cards on, like, Hanukah."

"I'm not Jewish, stupid, my dad's Muslim. You troublemaker…" Cate said, turning the envelope in her hands before tearing through the top.

She slipped out the card inside and opened it, and it started playing music that sounded ten times as loud as it probably was because of how quiet the fort was. Colin grabbed her hands as she shut the card herself. They were both trying hard not to laugh, thus causing the other to fail. It would have been a really bad moment for Joan's cohort to decide to get off its butt and patrol.

"You didn't have to do that," Cate said, more serious.

"Do what?"

"Sneak into New Rome's post office. Get me cupcakes and my card."

"No, but I do many things for fun." Colin said. "And, you know…"

"I know what?"

"You know…"

"What?"

"Gosh dang it, woman, that you're pretty- don't you look at yourself in the mirror?" He got all self-conscious after blurting it out. "And catty, and funny, and tough, strong, you don't take bull from anyone, your magic powers are cool as Pluto, you're rebellious, you're a nice person… Yeah." He said.

Cate's heart stopped. The joking flirt had taken on a life of its own. As much as for her than for him, she realised while holding the birthday present he'd gotten her.

"Colin, when's your birthday?"

"Umm, April," he said.

"Close enough," Cate replied.

And then she kissed him.

His lips tasted like icing, so she guessed that he'd stolen himself a cupcake too. He put an arm around her waist and he held her tight enough to be safe, but loosely enough so he didn't, like, break a rib. Cate felt more weightless than she ever had kissing anybody. She felt pretty and loved and wanted and rich in a million ways no bank could invest with. She hoped she did him justice, and she was nearly disappointed when the first cohort came marching by and they had to scramble back to their proper barracks.

A few minutes later, the buzz of energy and the bundle of smiles hadn't faded yet, and she was just lying in bed, under her comforter. She heard tapping on the window. She looked up at Colin and smiled back. He put his hand to the glass and she put hers on top of his, although all she felt was the icy cold pane of glass. He smiled really sweetly at her and right then, he looked very nice. He wore a grey t-shirt and blue jeans, his hair was shaggy and wild and his bright blue eyes shone in the faint torchlight that always kept New Rome lit.

Then, just because he was Colin, he went into Cheshire grin mode.

* * *

><p>ANNONS!<p>

Selenagomez8502- Well, Annabeth is pretty beaten down because of what life (or me) has made her do in the last little while. Breaking up with Percy and taking the criticism quietly has made her swallow her pride a lot, recently. She's done so much to make sure Percy would live to save the world that at this point, for her the choice is clear. MoA is on October 2nd, a sweet, glorious days where the flowers will sing and school will take forever to get its butt over with.

Someone else had replied, I know it. It's deleted for some reason. Hmm...


	72. XXXXIV Malcolm, Piper, Cate

**Hello people of fanfiction, how do you do?**

**Please enjoy this story, and I'm going to make this a general notice because I think I had somebody in the story say it once, and I don't want to weasel the answer to all that in _once again: _but the seven half-bloods that everyone has agreed on are: Jason, Piper, Leo, Percy, Hazel, Frank and JOSIE. Why not Annabeth? Because everybody on the Internet is doing that and I'm using Annabeth as a 'troublemaker' in this story. Also another reason that will soon be clear to all of you. Well, 'soon'... **

**Disclaimer: me no own**

**I hope you have a nice day and I encourage you to look up what monkey orchids are. Also, my friend is going to France. **

* * *

><p>XXXXIV<p>

Malcolm

It was early in the morning, but they were all gathered at the table.

Malcolm was furiously moving rocks with sharpie writing on them across a map. He'd thought that his plan was fail proof, but he'd woken up last night realising that _no way it was not fail proof in any way _and he'd have gotten up to fix it, but Nyssa threw him a shoe and had hissed 'gods dang it, sleep, child' in Greek.

To him, all those rocks had meaning. Like the one labeled 'Phoenix Group' was the children of Hecate, who were good at controlling big things for short periods of time, or working small to cause big effects. 'Tank Phalanx' was the children of Mars, who could be put anywhere a lot of forces would be concentrated, and 'Butterfly Troop' were the Aphrodite cabin who were good at appearing and disappearing in and out of places, hiding and causing distractions- not to mention the charmspeak; 'Dragonfly Troop' was the children of Hermes who worked similarly but had bigger numbers; 'Automaton Formation' was the Hephaestus cabin who should be placed near machinery or where they could work with something manual…

All these names were like a second language in the Athena cabin and he could have entire conversations with Annabeth without saying the name of a god or the word 'cabin'. He wished his big sister would be here now. He'd never admit it, but although being a leader was new and exciting, he was pretty sure he liked playing second-in-command better. How Annabeth handled all this pressure, especially since she was so high on the totem pole, was a mystery to him.

To the other people in the ten, the rocks were like algebra and computer language put together. They just nodded and said 'that's a great idea' even if ten seconds later Malcolm would go 'NO! The Bat Squad is the children of Dionysus and it would be so much better if we had someone with bigger numbers there!'

Nyssa tried to be helpful. But Malcolm had to repeat stuff like 'No, you can't do that, 'Sunshine Battalion' is the children of Apollo and they need to be placed in high up places so we can use the archery as an advantage'. And then she got mad at him like 'You're not a one-man army, Malcolm, accept help, make it easier to understand' and he'd be like 'You guys don't know how to do this, let me do this!' and then she'd say 'Gosh, you're impossible, to which she'd reply 'gosh no, _you're_ impossible' and then they'd be kissing somehow.

That last part confused Malcolm, but he couldn't say he wasn't enjoying it. His experience with kissing wasn't big. It involved, like, a few girls who'd kissed him only because they'd been playing spin-the-bottle when he was still in school, some daughter of Aphrodite behind the Demeter cabin a year ago. But he was pretty sure that Nyssa was a good kisser. And was this light-headedness part of the whole kissing business? It felt really weird, but really good…

Then Nyssa backed off and Clarisse, Travis and Will starred at them.

"So, strategy wise…" Malcolm muttered.

"Dude, a girl just kissed you." Will said.

"Yes, and I'm surprised," Malcolm said looking at Nyssa who held his stare with a glare that would make Godzilla pee himself. She wasn't blushing nearly as much as he was sure that he was.

Connor Stoll saved him –which was always embarrassing to admit. He was standing in one of the showers, rubbing shampoo through his hair, wearing shorts.

"Ewe, put a shirt on Connor, spare us." Nyssa said.

"You just kissed Malcolm Abramson; you have nothing to say on that subject." Travis said.

"You kissed Malcolm?" Connor asked. "Geez, I leave, and then demigod babies are made."

"What?" Both Malcolm and Nyssa snapped.

"Yeah. Demigod babies are made through lip contact, didn't you guys know? Oh, Styx, I'm screwed." Connor said.

"You kissed a Roman girl!" Will said. "Dude, are Roman girls hotter than Greek girls?"

Nyssa actually removed her shoe and physically inflicted pain on Will by throwing it.

"I did no such thing," Connor said. "But yes, they are."

"Whoo, that's my little brother, you guys!" Travis said. "Fist-pump through IM bro, not only is he still alive after five days, but he is also taken. That's my man."

"Your brother gets girls quicker than you, Stoll." Clarisse said. "Has Katie punched you lately?"

"Connor!" Malcolm said. "You can't just side-track like this!"

"Dude, I didn't side-track, it just kind of happened." Connor said.

"Connor, if she finds out that…"

"You kissed Nyssa, I get to kiss Cate." Connor said. "Strategy wise it is oh-so-totally fair."

"Okay, that's all regardless." Malcolm said. "Congrats on kissing, just don't let it screw up our plan. If you are discovered, they will throw you in prison, and there is a very minimal amount of things we can do about it. And then you lose your girlfriend anyways."

"Speaking of you guys going things; did you contact Percy and Annabeth?"

"Yes," Malcolm said.

"They are no longer an item," Travis said.

"Le gasp!"

"Moving along," Malcolm urged. He closed his eyes and sighed. "We're still going to fly everyone in through Pegasus and even a few of them through airplane via the generous donations of certain demigod parents."

"Who?"

"Mom, Drew's dad, Clarisse's mom, Chris' college fund, Sally Jackson," Travis said. "She must've saved, like, a million dollars since she hasn't had to feed Jackson for six months."

"And mostly everyone got at least five dollars in," Malcolm said. "They have a plan to get people to the airport, and we have friends in the airport that pass bronze through security."

"Awesome," Connor said. "'Cause, they're going to figure out whom I am eventually."

"We're working on it. Malcolm's got this plan all laid out." Nyssa said.

"I thought you guys were just playing rock poker," Connor said.

"Turn off the shower," Nyssa said.

"I can't, or else I'm filthy and they wonder what the freak I'm doing in the shower all the time," Connor said. "Also, I have to whisper, and also I have about three drachmas left, and a minute of shower time, so talk to me."

"Keep going through the schedule and socialising with your Roman friends and Roman girlfriend. Keep obeying, don't cause trouble." Malcolm said. "We'll contact you when the Greeks get here; and then again when we're ready to attack. Basically, we're going to have a message for you to pass to your Centurion as well as the other non-corrupt Centurion."

"I can do that," Connor said, washing his armpits. "But, uh, guys?"

"Yeah?"

"If everyone comes here… That's, like, abandoning Camp Half-Blood, right?"

"Right," Malcolm said uncomfortably. Connor looked uncomfortable.

"I don't like that."

"Well, nobody does, and the guys on the ship had a fight about it." Malcolm said.

"No, Percy and Annabeth had a fight about it." Travis said. "Piper and Leo were kind of just terrified to be there."

Malcolm shot him a look.

"Okay Connor, take care." Malcolm wished him good luck in Greek. The others repeated it, and so did Connor. It felt good to speak Greek to him, and Malcolm assumed that it provided some comfort at this point in time and space.

When the IM faded and the others left to go watch the dogs take down Travis again after he 'stole' something from Clarisse, Malcolm turned to Nyssa.

"Really?" He asked.

"Oh, come on." She said. "You have had a crush on me for eight months."

"That doesn't mean that that was the right time," he said. Suddenly he felt brave, watching her scowling at him with her usual Nyssa-ness scowl, and her dark hair looking really soft over her shoulder (though if he'd touch it, he was sure that she would kill him). "Now is, though."

He took her hands, pulled her forwards, and kissed her.

Piper

Annabeth's wise words (none of her siblings would ever forgive her for asking a daughter of Athena for advice on boys) had been 'talk to him'.

She was starting to get how hard she'd been on Jason; it was hard to talk to someone who was working really hard to avoid you. Tommy was surprisingly good at it; even if the Argo II didn't have that much floor space, and it drove Piper nuts.

That night mostly everyone was out watching the stars except for the trio of younger girls, who had retreated downstairs in what Piper assumed was a Quinn-related moment.

Jason and Percy were having one of their friendly I'm-only-arguing-and-threatening-you-because-you're-my-cousin-and-I-love-you-in-a-cousin-bromance-way arguments about whether the Big Dipper was a pot or a bear. Frank had just added the idea that it might be a bear's pot and Leo was calling him stupid for it and insisting that it was a bear trapped in a pot. Ella was furiously mumbling about the stars in the Big Dipper, which was her code for: _idiots, Ursa Major is the astrological representation of the hunter of Artemis Callista turned into a bear by the goddess when Lord Zeus fell in love with her and they had a child, and the constellation is this many billion light years away from the earth and composed with these stars. _Being in Ella's mind would be fascinating and scary, like being surrounded and looking up bookshelves the size of the Chrysler building.

Annabeth and Piper's eyes crossed and rolled in synchronisation. Boys were boys; but at the same time they were total idiots. Piper managed to play football without having to sacrifice so many brain cells.

Tommy walked up the ladder. He'd gone down when Jason had offered that someone should go check on the younger girls. He couldn't go himself because his whole leg was still immobilised in layers of ace bandages and Quinn would scream if she saw him walking on it.

Tommy had gotten up quicker than anybody else. He didn't like sitting down and he liked work, keeping himself busy, moving around. Part of Piper's mind kept thinking that he wanted to be back in a wide and open forest. The other part of her was slightly mad at him for ignoring her. _He'd _kissed _her, _after all.

"All is good?" Jason asked.

"They are fine," Tommy said. "Playing some kind of game."

"They _are _thirteen-to-fourteen year old girls." Piper said.

"Speaking of which, it's Quinn's birthday tomorrow which makes her fifteen." Annabeth said.

"Really?"

"Splendid, let's make a cake." Leo said.

"With what? Tofu, tomato sauce icing, and fifteen heavy-duty candles on top?"

"Don't be silly Piper, one heavy-duty candle counts for five regular swirly pastel candles," Leo said.

Everyone laughed and Tommy was no exception. His brown eyes flickered to her for a second and she tried for a smile, and then he went to sit down next to Leo and Piper lost it.

"Oh my gods why aren't you talking to me?" She said, just getting up.

"What?" He asked.

"You can't just- just _do that. _You can't just kiss me, then not talk to me, then ignore me, then just- gah!" She said.

"What?" His German accent got pretty thick. "Piper," he got up and walked up to her. He was close again and Piper's skin tingled. "I thought you weren't… I thought that…"

"Thought what? That I wouldn't like you? My God, Tommy, you're the sweetest and nicest and most interesting person I've met! I wasn't protesting much when you kissed me, now was I? I really, really _do _like you!"

"Look, Piper… I'm… I'm awkward at this. I've been living in a camp since I'm nine. I had no idea what to do, I never told you I liked you before I kissed you, and after Josie just yelled it out-"

"Oh yeah, name your first child Oliver, lovely name. I think it'd go well with 'Leo' as a middle name." Leo said. Piper's eyes were fixed on Tommy but she heard Annabeth smack him.

"-I thought you weren't happy with me." Tommy said.

"You couldn't have been more wrong," Piper said. She put her arms around his neck and he hugged her back.

"I'm sorry." He said. Piper kissed him.

"Well, I officially forgive you." she said.

And the next morning, she found out that there was something undeniably awesome about waking up and realising that you'd fallen asleep and slept while holding someone's hands and that he'd held onto yours the whole night.

Cate

She sat down on the couch and laid back a bit. The plate of chocolate-chip scones was quick to land in front of her today. A second _aurae_ put down a mug of smoking hot chocolate. Colin's usual plate of fish and chips appeared next to the table, and for a second the spirit appeared for a second, an elfish face that was either really young or really old or somewhere awkward in the middle, and she giggled. Cate made a rude hand gesture at her and she disappeared after leaving a plate of waffles with fruit and whipped cream and chocolate syrup for Josh-who did not need the whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Cate waved her hand and focused- a feeling like warm oil sapped through her fingers and she replaced the whipped cream by butter and the chocolate by maple syrup. She even did him a favour and made it be the good stuff- the natural stuff that dripped out of maple trees, not that simulated Aunt Jemima.

The two boys appeared and Colin sat down on the same couch as Cate, facing her.

"Hola, Amjad." He said. "How goes it? Had a good night?"

"The best," Cate said with a smile, picking up a scone.

"Can you make room on that couch for three people? I'm just _so _lonely." Josh asked.

"No Josh, get your own." Colin said.

"Get your own what? Couch or _giiiiiiiiiiiirlfriend?" _Josh said.

"You _told him?" _Cate said, hitting Colin on the knee.

"Please, hellhound, I'm not as stupid as I look." Josh said. "And don't you say anything about not being her boyfriend, Roberson. There is no such thing as 'kissing buddies', and if there is, then you two are insane."

Cate liked being in the legion, she honestly did. It provided her with great joy and amusement and social opportunities- although she denied them more often than one would think, mostly because of Quinn's eternal shyness. (Speaking of which, she really hopped that that girl was okay on the big ship with all the monsters and strangers. Not sure which one would upset her friend more, though…? At least Hazel Levesque had the reputation of being nice –albeit, secretive-, and Quinn seemed to get along with anybody who could pronounce words of more than nineteen syllables that had some relation to science, so she'd be fine with her sister.)

But her day in the legion got a lot better with Colin.

So, they could've _tried _to be discreet about it. But what the Pluto, man. YOLO had been _invented _by legionnaires; and although she hated how people always used it, Cate was fifteen and about to head off to this major blood-bath-like war, and things were about to get screwed up; so there it was.

It took about ten seconds for Brady to notice that the first time that Colin landed an eagle landing after yelling the lyrics to 'I'm like a bird' the whole way down until he tucked it into a roll and did _not _kill himself (thank the gods, Cate would have killed him), he took her hand. Then another split second for him to scream it out for the rest of the cohort to know (thank you Brady) and then they laughed. Colin said something along the lines of "If you knew how good of a kisser she was, you'd _wish _you were her boyfriend."

Then Cate punched him.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I just can't make a list of why they wish they were your boyfriend right now because a) you already know it, b) they'd make fun of me and c) I lost flecks of my brain when they fell out of my ears on the way down from the eagle-thing."

Okay, cute enough. Cate kissed him on the cheeks figuring that the whole world knew already, so really.

Eventually he and Josh went off to do their own random thing in the streets of New Rome and Cate wandered alone. Two months ago it would have been Josh and Jedediah off to do some random thing together, and she and Quinn would've done some other random thing. Obviously she was glad that Colin was there now, but that didn't stop that she was upset that Jedediah had disappeared, and also worried about Quinn. Times had changed, man. Times had changed… Which made her sound like her grandfather who kept saying that when something was freakishly different from how things were back in Lebanon.

She sat down at a coffee shop that she had no money for. She just wanted to sit at a little round table with matching black chairs under a flap roof, around chattering legionnaires who were happy and joking now that the training day was over.

And she nearly got it- but no one dared make jokes and laugh too loudly with Joan's patrols coming through, and the Centurions of the Fifth Cohort were sitting at a table together, hunched close together and talking in hushed and worried voices, Dakota drawing something that looked like a map on the table with his finger.

Bah- it was close enough. What was she in, Paris? Fairy tale land?

She looked all over. A few days ago she'd have pulled up a chair with Dakota and Gwen and wanted in on their plan, and they'd have kicked her out and said 'Centurions only'. Now, she wasn't _that _angry at Joan. She'd still pull that prank. She'd still come up with her own. But there was something about having Colin be chill and easy-going and hilarious and adorable in every possibly aspect that calmed her down. Maybe he was shedding optimism. And she wanted to avoid the stupid risks to keep him out of trouble, and herself too (because if they both were out of trouble, they were together in the land of no troubles- yeay, yeay, yeay).

She leaned back in her chair. Yeah. Life was good.

She told him so when he sat down at the usual dinner table.

"Yeah," he said. "Life's real good. Come here."

She got up from her own couch and sat down next to him, their feet intertwined. She rested her head on his shoulder and didn't care when people pointed or whispered. She just closed her eyes. Maybe that was how she knew that she hadn't screwed up and that she actually had something going with Colin.

"Food," he said.

"I don't want to move," she said.

"Careful, plate's hot." He said. She opened her eyes and realised that he was passing her a plate of bowtie pasta with pesto sauce.

"I didn't want you to move either." He said.

Cate put the plate on her lap. He was a wimp, it wasn't that hot. Or maybe he just really didn't want her to get burned. Hmm…

"Where's Josh?" She asked after a while of quiet eating.

"Huh?"

"I thought you guys were together."

"No, I'm with _you," _he said.

"Ha, ha." She said. "I mean, weren't you two chilling before supper?"

"Oh. Yeah, umm… I don't know where he is."

Cate raised an eyebrow suspiciously. What the heck had he been doing? Did she want to know what the heck he'd been doing?

She decided that if she must find out, she'd find out. But not now. He had dinosaur shaped nuggets and he was mimicking the fall of the dinosaurs with one of her sandwich halves as the asteroid. She was _not _missing that for wisdom or answers of any kind (except maybe the cure for cancer).


	73. XXXXV Leo, Cate, Quinn

XXXXV

Leo

Leo had learned one thing in life.

You never read anything that there wasn't going to be a test on.

Novels, short stories, textbooks, required reading, newspaper articles… There would either be a test on the subject, a pop quiz on the subject, or a project to do on that subject.

So in the mythological world, Leo did not understand why the Hades he'd read the Symposium and seen these Jane and Cedric dreams. And he was still getting them. Everything from the silks of the Middle Ages, to Native Americans before the explorers settled in, to Mayas, to the first gay couple married in [someplace Leo couldn't remember]…

In a disturbing new string of these dreams, he'd gotten two short scenes with little kids last night.

In one of them, a girl and a boy who were about seven years old each were sitting in front of each other, under an oak tree.

"I'm going to miss you when you move away." The boy said.

The girl nodded. "I bet there won't be anybody who can climb trees as fast as you where I'm going."

"There's nobody who can climb trees as fast as me in the _universe," _he said.

Somebody yelled 'Virginia, darling'.

The little girl got up. "I've got to go."

"Yeah," he said getting up too.

"Have… Have fun in California."

"Okay," the little girl said. She spat on her hand and held it out, the little boy spat on his and they shook hands. Then the little girl scrambled back to the chariot where her parents were waiting for her, with the big white tops like in the pioneer ages.

And in another one, it was like a picture show.

A little girl and a little boy, each five years old were playing outside with sticks, duelling each other. Then the little boy fell on no apparent surface and the girl gasped.

"Mrs. Bertrand, Mrs. Bertrand!" She called panicking.

He saw the little boy in a hospital bed with no hair and an IV in his hand, his mother sitting in the chair next to him and reading. The little girl knocked on the door, her tall mother behind her. Then they walked in. The mothers talked and the little girl went on her tip toes to talk to her friend, stretching her neck above the bars of the bed. They chatted and chatted. At some point he pointed from the IV to the side of his head, and the little girl put a teddy bear on the side table. The little boy grabbed it and hugged it and said thank you.

Then the kid had no hair, but he had colour in his cheeks and enough energy to run around after the girl now. Leo's stomach tightened and a second later he fell against the grass. The little girl screamed and knelt next to him and shook him, but he didn't wake up.

"Mrs. Bertrand!" She yelled again, her voice panicking and her eyes teary. "He has it again!"

Leo saw them in the hospital again, but he looked in terrible shape. Pale and tired and frail and sick.

Leo saw the little boy in his own bed at home, with an IV set up next to him. The little girl walked into his bedroom and sat next to him on the bed. They talked for a bit, but nothing happened. The boy's mother appeared in the doorframe.

"Darling, your Mama said that you were eating at 5:00? It's time to go home." She said. Her eyes looked glassy and tired, like the rest of her face. New lines had appeared.

The girl nodded and said goodbye. She kissed him on the cheek. The little boy pulled the teddy bear from under the covers.

"You should have your teddy bear back. I'm not gonna need it."

Leo knocked himself out of his thoughts and looked around the deck. Percy and Jason were talking (arguing) about something. Hazel, Quinn and Josie were playing a game of cards that included yelling out swear words when someone was bluffing, which Josie was too pleased to do. Annabeth was reading some required reading for her advanced graduate program. Piper and Tommy were hanging out at the front of the ship. Piper sat on the railing and Tommy kept touching her waist because he was afraid she'd fall. They were enjoying their I've-been-in-a-romantic-relationship-for-a-week daze. Everyone was leaving them alone for the time being- except for Leo and Josie who refused.

He felt kind of solitarily awesome, standing there at his control station with a whole ship and nine million volts of awesome at his control. Awesome did indeed come in volts.

He also felt trapped by the dreams. Like, how did you throw something like that into a conversation? 'By the way, Jane Stone gave up her life to try and stop the demigod civil war and try to be reborn with this Greek she fell in love with and they keep being reborn in other forms ever since, boy it's hot today'.

No thanks.

Besides; Jason probably wouldn't believe him because of how glorified Jane was in the legion and because he'd grown up with it for years. And Quinn would hit Leo for saying it- thus once more proving to the world that she could yell and not be shy for bursts at a time.

He had to figure out what it meant and _then _share with the world.

Suddenly he froze.

Holly Styx.

The day that Josie had yelled out that Piper and Tommy had finally kissed each other… That had been the night after he had the first dreams about the Symposium and co. Holly smokes. Holly freaking smokes. He'd missed it completely.

"Valdez, you okay?" Jason asked. He turned back towards Piper and Tommy, feeling stupid just as he watched Tommy push a strand of Piper's hair behind her ear. She smiled shyly at the ground but rested her head on his shoulder.

"You're Jane and Cedric!" He said.

Cate

She loaded her slingshot with a really nice rock and took aim at one of the empty cans lined on the low fence around the third cohort's barracks. It was another one of those 'why does my cohort have this?' things, but today it proved useful- which, she assumed, so had the fire escape.

"Gessunteit," Colin coughed.

"Screw you, Roberson!" She said. Cate took another deep breath, pulled the slingshot further back and…

"Bull's eye!" Colin cheered. "That's my girl!"

"So what would I have been if I'd have missed?" Cate asked.

"My loser girlfriend," he said. "I'm kidding, I love you Cate."

The words were said lightly, but their soft touch was enough to send off a trolley of butterflies in her stomach. She was going to reply –she wasn't sure what, but she'd reply something-, but she didn't have a chance to.

"What are you two doing?"

It was everyone's favourite backstabber, ridding Reyna's poor Pegasus.

"Umm, slingshot contest." Colin said.

"There are more important things to be done," Joan said.

"No there aren't," Cate said. The training day was over for the third cohort, some kid had, like, twisted his leg and snapped it at seven places. Way the go Ray.

Joan glared at Cate.

"Roberson, I want you doing inventory." Joan said.

Colin nodded, stuffed the slingshot in his pocket and walked off. Cate followed and he held out his hand to her when they heard; "Amjad, I want you picking trash off the _Via Principia, _the fauns are unruly again." _Yeah, because they're always unruly, they just _like _Jason and Reyna, whereas nobody likes you, _Cate thought.

Then she realised that those two places were at opposite ends of the fort and that Joan had totally done it on purpose by the look on her face.

"Hellhound," she swore at Joan.

"Pardon, Amjad?" Joan said menacingly.

"Hellhound, you are. Gosh." Cate said, too ticked off to realise that she'd just called the praetor a really bad name.

"That's enough." Joan said. "I don't care what Brady lets you get away with, I don't want any of it."

Joan snapped her fingers and like a merry band of well-trained pets, guards from the fourth cohort came, took Cate by the arms, pushed her away from Colin who hissed but didn't move (like he should! Both the protective hiss and the not-moving, Cate approved entirely), and had her still.

"You, to the armoury." Joan ordered. Helplessly he left, looking at Cate with worried eyes that made her want to pinky swear that she'd be okay.

In the center of the Via Principia, Joan's guards cleared the way. They forced Cate to kneel in the middle of it.

"I'm giving you the maximum penalty for foul language seeing as I can't prove any challenge or insult to authority, considering your skinny boyfriend would vouch for you."

_Insult to authority? You can get it, no problem. Just make me kneel for ten seconds more…_

People were gathering.

The guards let her go.

"One hundred and fifty push-ups." Joan told Cate. "On your toes, not your knees. With the armour on your back."

Cate was going to swear some more. Thankfully she could manage push-ups on her knees whereas many people couldn't.

People watched as she got on her toes and positioned her hands. She lowered herself to the ground. One hundred and forty nine more to go.

It wasn't the excessively hard work that was bad –despite what her screeching arms said.

It was the people watching that made it worst, which she knew was the purpose of this. Like, each one took a sliver of Cate's dignity and honour; and the Fourth and Second cohort weren't shy on the comments. She tried to listen to the Third and Fifth Cohort's cheering more, but through the screeching part of her brain that yelled 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO YOUR ARMS?' she heard the insults.

_Witch's daughter._

_Poisoned._

_Not fit for Rome._

_Underworld spawn._

She had enough friends in the legion that by now, she didn't mind those petty insults to either Trivia or her ichor that much, although now she was excessively hard and ticked off. See, she didn't believe in getting insulted for what you were. And insult was about what you did.

But what got her while she was at 120 was;

_Terrorist, at that._

Cate lost it. She lost it, she lost it, she lost it. Because gods damn it, she was Arabic and that wasn't anybody's business but hers. And it was business she was proud of; she was proud of being Lebanese-American. But when the crud about terrorism came up and got flung at her, Cate lost it.

She got up and charged the legionnaire who'd said it, the second cohort's current Centurion, Dwain. She grabbed his armour and swung him around, stronger than she'd normally be in a fight against a guy with Dwain's build.

"You want mean, well guess what _jahech_, I can give you mean." She growled at him, shaking his armour.

She felt a punch to the eye from someone other than Dwain, and Dwain himself got her lip. She didn't let go and Joan's guards pulled her from behind.

"Assault of a senior officer," Joan said. She sounded almost happy about it and that made Cate rage more. "The penalty for that-"

"Is cancelled."

Brady walked out of the crowd, pushing the people who didn't move over out of his way.

"Centurion Curtis, this is not the time-"

"It is. Cate's in my cohort and part of her discipline automatically goes to me."

She was glad that the son of Mercury was serious this once, although she couldn't acknowledge it through her own anger and the pain in her lip and the fuzzy vision from her punched eye. It'd be black for sure.

"And the penalties should be cancelled. She was provoked quite clearly and publically. The charges should _actually _go to Centurion Dwaine Milson for racism and insult to a legionnaire's heritage- an offence which, it seems, Rome is letting off easy now."

_The Greeks. _Even Cate registered that he was talking about the Greeks. The crowd went silent and Gwen and Dakota quickly emerged from the crowd to stand behind Brady. Cohort Fifty Three were all making sure that they were armed.

Turning her head from Joan, to Joan's flaring nostrils, to the Loyal Centurions, Cate saw Colin in the crowd with her not-fuzzy eye. He must have gone to get them. Bless him, bless him bless him, bless him, she loved him too.

For a second, Cate thought that a fight would break out right there and then she realised how poorly armed she was.

"No charges. Amjad, get out of here. Disperse, there's nothing to see here, Romans." Joan said, breaking the staring.

The guards let her go rather harshly and stomped off, and Cate fell.

Brady walked over and slipped an arm under her spaghetti-like shoulders and arm, which ached so bad.

"C'mon Cate, let's go get you cleaned up." He said bringing her up. Then quitter he added. "You're lucky to have him looking out for you."

Cate looked up and saw an anxious Colin, waiting. She nodded softly. "Yeah I am."

Quinn

Leo had lost it.

"Leo, I'm Piper and this is Tommy." Piper said. "You've known at least me for, like, a year. What are you talking about?"

Dots connected in Quinn's head. All his random and often stupid questions over the last little while… The Symposium too, but that was insane to add to the equation just yet. "Leo, are you talking about Jane Stone?"

Leo looked like he'd just had an epiphany. His eyes darted everywhere, which was the Leo Valdez was of thinking intensely.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Sort of. Oh my gods I am so stupid."

"If you think Piper's name is Jane, then yes." Frank said.

"Leo- Quinn- somebody?" Hazel, poor and visibly confused Hazel, asked.

"Okay, this is insane." Leo said. "But it's _so cool!" _

"Talk Valdez, they don't have all day." Josie said, leaning back against the railing and crossing her arms. Quinn had an awkward feeling that her friend knew exactly what was going on, and that she'd known for a while.

"I have these insane dreams that the Roman praetor Jane Stone fell in love with a Greek prisoner and they plotted to stop the Civil War by ruining each other's armies. And eventually he died and she tried to stop the civil war by giving up her life, but that also meant that she was reincarnated in another life with the dude -Cedric by the way, he's kind of chill- because they're, like, bonded or something."

"That's great, albeit tragic." Piper said. "I don't understand, though."

"Leo, is that why you kept asking Quinn and I about the Symposium?" Annabeth asked.

"They mentioned it a million times. The dream-dudes." Leo nodded.

"The Symposium?" Tommy asked. His hand tightened around Piper's as everyone wandered closer, them included.

"Yeah. It was written by Plutarch."

"Plato." Quinn corrected.

"It doesn't matter, they were probably cousins anyways." Leo said.

"What's the Symposium?" Percy asked.

"According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other half" –Plato's _The Symposium." _Piper recited.

Everyone looked at her, frowning.

"What? Destiny and fluff and love. It's programmed inside me, it's not my fault." She said, backing up against Tommy's chest.

"I'm a genius," Leo said.

"Leo, that's kind-of far-fetched." Hazel said.

"Yeah. There's no such thing as, like, true love or whatever." Percy said.

Quinn looked at Annabeth. She looked like she'd just died inside.

* * *

><p>And on that note- HELLO ANNONS!<p>

Ryan McCann- Oh don't you worry, Cate's important ;) She has her purpose and it'll end up making her quite important.

Guest- Why thank you! I'm so gald you liked it! Sadly to keep my sanity as great as it gets, I only post on Fridays, special occasions and occasionally Tuesdays.


	74. XXXXVI Piper, Annabeth, Jason, Frank

**Happy Canada Day! Or happy Spain-dealt-with-Italy day, all depends on you. As a celebration and because I need this story to cut to the chase faster, here's a chapter! Also my wifi is back so I am posting FROM THE UPSTAIRS LAPTOP. Mm-hmm... (My mom was so proud!) **

**Disclaimer: Me no own **

* * *

><p>XXXXV<p>

Piper

Pretty soon, everybody was up to speed on Leo's insane and cacophonic theory, and ideas were flying off. Piper felt slightly like a freak, and slightly dizzy. She clung on to Tommy's arm because her head spun.

"Why did you find out, out of all people?" Frank asked. "It seems pretty random."

"_Why_ did you find out?" Hazel asked. They chattered for ten seconds when there was a wolf-whistle. Everybody turned to Jason, who had two fingers in his mouth.

"I don't mean to sound controlling here, but I don't think any of us have a thing to tell." Jason said. He turned to Piper and Tommy. Tommy's hand tightened around Piper's and she swore that she could nearly feel his heartbeat.

"Tommy, Piper," he said really calmly. "I don't mean to put you on the spot, but what do you two have to say about all this?"

She tilted her head up to look at Tommy. He was so much taller than her that he looked down. She could nearly read in his eyes. He didn't know about this anymore than she did. He was confused. The flash mob of destiny and myth and true fluffy love was coming right now, so that vaguely alarmed him as much as it totally alarmed her.

"I don't know," he said quietly in French. Only Frank and Hazel spoke French.

"That's a huge question." Piper said, her fingers twiddling with the ring at her neck. "I don't know what to answer."

"This is a matter of the heart," Tommy said. "I know it sounds sappy and terrible, but answer with what's there."

She looked at him. She'd known him for a little over a week, but sometimes she felt like she knew him better than she thought she knew Annabeth or Leo, Jason or Drew, Lacy or Mitch. Like, she knew when he was feeling something, or why he was feeling it. She could start feeling like she was going to get kissed but still be surprised when he'd kiss her cheek. She could wake up every morning knowing that he was asleep next to her but still smile when she saw that he looked just as calm sleeping as he did awake. Maybe everyone was like that. Maybe it was insane. It probably was. But Piper was an insane being with the half-god/half-mortal concept, the charm speaking, the Argo II and the monsters. Maybe, just maybe she was meant for insane things.

"I can't say for sure."

"Me neither, but Piper, I really think that maybe… I know this make me sound crazy-"

"Yeah," Piper said. "I know. If there's anybody in the world, even if I'm not in the skin of every single person that's in love but… I think that it could be. Me too."

He squeezed her hand. "It's a bit scary," she said.

Tommy didn't say anything about that. "Do you want to tell the others?"

"_Je ne sais vraiment pas_. Josie's gonna love that." Piper said.

"She looks serious enough." Tommy said. "Right now."

"Looks don't matter."

"But they aren't deceptive. I saw a beautiful girl and I ended up meeting a beautiful person."

"Stop flirting with me," Piper said, pushing his chest. She had to smile anyways and he smiled back at her. Gods, that shy smile always reeled her in.

"Maybe," Piper said to the crew, in English this time. "Maybe." _Of course this means I'll have to contact my delightfully confusing mother of a goddess to figure out this and that, and who knows how to do that. _

Tommy touched her elbow and knocked her out of her thoughts.

"It doesn't matter. About the Symposium." He said. "I still love you."

Annabeth

She'd excused herself on the pretext of reading after the group discussion, and she'd went and hidden herself in the engine room, in the corner behind the boilers.

She leaned her head against the wall and tried not to cry.

She was tired. She was hurt. It was like the bullet she'd aimed at Percy had ricochet and hit her through the heart. Every day there was something to make her regret it. Yesterday it was how he and Jason were boasting about how may long trips they'd taken and he'd mentioned Siren Bay and the Sea of Monsters. The day before that it was just seeing his face- those were the worst days. A while ago it'd been when Jason was hurt, and he'd told them that he knew First Aid because he was training to be a lifeguard.

_ Annabeth fed the community center's machine a dollar bill and someone grabbed her by the waist._

_She nearly screamed and realised a second later who it was. She turned around and saw his laughing face. His jet black hair was still wet and he was looking about as gorgeous as he got._

_"Gotcha, Wise Girl." He said his green eyes playful and happy. _

_"Oh my gods Seaweed Brain, I'm going to kill you one day." She said. She kissed him, because that was something stupid to do._

_"Hey Annabeth," a girl named Nicky said walking out of the girl's changing room, her wet hair down her back. "Thank God someone's taking him off our hands. He's all yours."_

_"Ditcher! Wait up," Lilian said running after Nicky. She spotted Annabeth and Percy together. "He's insane tonight, Annabeth, good luck."_

_"I was actually perfectly sane as I was pushing you into the pool," Percy said. "That was an enlightened choice."_

_"Oh my god, do you know what enlightened means?" Lilian asked. _

_"It _was _hilarious, though." Nicky said. Lilian smacked her arm. _

_ Annabeth loved listening to the lifeguard trainees talking to each other._

_ A few seconds later Chad came out._

_"Oh yeah, the girl Jackson pays to show up and impress up," Chad said. "Hey Annabeth."_

_"Hello Chad," she said. "Did you get pushed into the pool tonight?"_

_"No, I pushed Nicky in after Lilian," Chad said. "I'll see you later guys, I didn't lock my bike in and if it gets stolen I'm screwed."_

_"Genius," Percy said._

_ Lilian and Nicky followed him out, bickering and picking at each other the whole time._

_"Please tell me you actually _did _push her into the pool and you didn't use water powers," Annabeth said when it was just them. _

_"No, I pushed her. Doritos?" _

_ Annabeth nodded, and he pushed the button on the machine for her. He bent down and grabbed her bag of chips from the bottom drawer of the machine._

_"Thanks," Annabeth said. "And no, you may not have one, I'm starving."_

_"So am I."_

_"Your mother will feed you when you get home, whereas my cafeteria is closed and my roommate steals my food. I need these more." Annabeth said, opening the top._

_"And you think that my mom would let you starve? Remind me to introduce you to her," Percy said. _

_"Fair point," Annabeth said holding out the bag to him._

_ With his arm around her waist, they walked out of the community center. His hair was wet since he was surrounded by mortals and had to put the anti-water barriers down._

_"You stink like chlorine," Annabeth said._

_"And usually I smell delightful of chlorine?"_

_"Shut up, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said. "Can we walk faster? There's somewhere I've got to go before going to your place, and it closes at nine."_

_"Where?" Percy asked. _

_"A library that-"_

_ He groaned._

_"Oh, come on," Annabeth said. "I come find you at the community pool every night."_

_"That's because you love me."_

_"And you don't love me?" Annabeth asked pointedly._

_"Of course I do." Percy said. "But… libraries…" _

_"You haven't even heard what it specialises in," Annabeth said._

_"What does it specialise in?"_

_"Ancient history and texts from the era," she said._

_ He groaned again._

_"It's for Camp Half-Blood." She said. "You can appreciate that."_

_"Can't we just hang out tonight? Since your birthday's during exams my mom's making your favourite tonight. Don't tell her I said it in advance."_

_"That's really sweet Seaweed brain, from you and your mom. And I won't tell her, but this is important."_

_"You've had nightmares about something?" He asked. _

_"Yes," Annabeth said surprised that he could see that far in. "Well, preoccupations. Since Rachel went prophetic, actually."_

_"And visiting a library would make you feel a lot better about it?"_

_"Yes. I know that you don't get it personally-"_

_"No, no, it's like when I go to the beach. Okay, let's do it, let's go to this library." He said kissing her cheek. She couldn't believe that she'd just gotten him to come to a library for reasons other than hiding from some monster. Holly smokes. "But fast because I'm starving too." _

A few seconds later Quinn came too. She sat down next to Annabeth and hugged her.

Annabeth's eyes were tearing up. She felt numb and her mind was empty.

He'd said it. He'd finally said it- what she'd always wanted to hear from him. He'd basically confirmed that her plan was worthy of Athena. That she'd broken him to the point where it hurt so much that he couldn't forgive her of find good in what she'd once been- in what they'd once been. Her plan had worked- her whole life had always been about making plans and making them work and fail-proofing them. She loved it- she always had. But she felt so bad that second.

"You can cry," Quinn promised. "They're all busy. Josie's being loud."

She'd barely stopped talking before she burst into tears.

The idea that even if he survived this and she survived this and the world lived through this, that those simple moments when she snuck away from her schoolwork or that he got to come on campus or when they were both at camp wouldn't happen anymore… Because of deliberate efforts to ruin it on her behalf… Because of unforgivable things that she'd said… She buried her face in her knees. She'd wanted to build something permanent and now she'd become some demolition ball. She hated Juno, she hated the fates, she wanted to punch Aphrodite's face in, she _hated _Juno.

"Gods," Annabeth said. "I hate this. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. I should've stayed in Rome. I should have stayed behind in Rome, gone back to Camp Half-Blood earlier. I don't want to do this. I don't want to be the wildcard that could throw him off his game. I don't want to be the sacrifice that he won't be able to make. I don't want to have to cover that up."

"But you are, Ann." Quinn said. "And you have to do it. And you are because you're a beautiful person, and if you're the person that has to be his wildcard and his number one, then it's because you can do it. We're all matched up to the fate we can handle."

"Do you really believe that?" Annabeth asked. "Really Quinn? Because I can't do this anymore. I can't stand seeing his face that way over and over, time and time again. I'm losing it, I can't handle it."

Quinn looked at Annabeth for a second. She took off her glasses and whipped them on the bottom of her shirt. Her eyes had even bigger pockets than Annabeth remembered, and the grey irises were dulling.

"That's how I get through _my _days." She said. "And they're not easy either."

Jason

Gaia's earth prison was fuller than usual.

Of course his eyes darted for Thalia first. She was sitting on a rock and examining a nail in the way most people examined their weapons.

Mrs. Zhang was sitting a wall, unmoving- but alive. The silvery ghost of Sammy Valdez floated a short distance away.

Nico was pacing back and forth, about half-driven to insanity. Like those animals who were kept in cruel zoos where the cage was too small.

Jedediah Adams was standing in the corner, leaning against the walls, arms crossed. They all looked tired now. Not the usual feisty that Jason was used to. Even his sister dropped her nail and leaned back.

There were three new people there, and Jason recognised them straight away. Grover. Percy's best friend at camp. And Mitchell; Piper's closest sibling. Then there was a little boy, he must be around eight, with sandy blond hair and blue eyes that Jason did not recognise. Shoot, that was nearly everyone on the Argo II covered. Piper, Percy, and then whoever knew that little boy.

He was pacing on the spot, his hooves clicking against the ground.

"Stop it, goat boy." Thalia said. "I'm going to lose it."

"Like you didn't lose it a long time ago, Thals." Nico said.

"He's a goat?" The little boy asked. He was mortal, then.

"Please don't start again," Jedediah said.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean, Zombie Lad?" Thalia snapped.

"He said please!" The little boy said.

"Stop arguing like children," Mrs. Zhang said. "Thalia, how old are you?"

She made a face. "That's complicated. Are we talking about bone age, mental age or physical age?"

"Nico- are you a baby?" Mrs. Zhang continued.

"No." He sighed.

"Then stop acting like one," Mrs. Zhang said. "The only one with an excuse is Matthew, here." She said pointing to the little boy. Matthew… it was at the tip of Jason's tongue, he knew who that kid was.

"No offence," Grover said, "But Mrs. Zhang, why are you so zen all the time?"

"Because I trust my grandson."

"Frank," Jedediah told Matthew.

Chase! That was who he was, Annabeth's younger half-brother. Matthew Chase.

"Yes. Call me crazy and maybe I am, but the seven half-bloods are doing their job. Until then, I will not waste my energy either bickering with you children, or trying to break out. That would anger the earth goddess."

"She's already plenty mad," Thalia muttered. She got up and stretched her legs. "How many days has it been since food?"

"Two," Nico said.

"Good, there should be something tonight." Thalia said. "See Matthew, it'll be okay."

"You jinxed it," Nico said.

"No she didn't. Gaia wants us alive. Well, she wants you lot alive. Too late for me." Sammy said.

Right then Jedediah took a running start and sent a flying kick towards the earth bars.

"Jed!" Thalia said.

"I'm sick of it!" He said. "Gods damn, I'm sick of this whole thing! She plucked Mrs. Zhang out of flight, you out of the hunters, me out of the fort, Grover and Mitchell from Camp, Matthew from San Francisco- gods, she's just going to get to the seven, now!"

"Jedediah, don't say that." Thalia said. "They're going to be fine."

"How can you say that, Thalia? If she got me, then she knows… She can get…"

"Get who?" Grover asked.

"Your girlfriend?" Matthew asked nagging, as official eight year old.

"She's not," Jedediah said. HURT was written as clearly on his face as I WISH SHE WERE.

"I know what you mean," Mitchell said. "I mean, about the others not being safe. But… Really, Jedediah, we can't _do_ anything. And freaking out is just bad."

Jason knew the secret layer of Jedediah- he was a child of Virtus. The god of military prowess. He didn't like, usually wasn't, and never should be caged in. Like Reyna, Jason thought.

"Hey," Thalia said softly. "I know, it's stressing us all out. But if there's something I've learned, being here since December and all, it's that you have to be like Mrs. Zhang. Trust the people who are out there."

Jason woke up feeling about twenty times more pressure.

He also felt like a total jerk when he had to go talk to Piper, Percy and Annabeth.

Frank

Since Leo's outburst of ancient myths and dreams and revelations, two whole days had passed with nothing more dramatic than a sea monster that looked so much like a kraken, Frank was starting to think that all movie makers were demigods. (Leo had loved that. He was like; 'Gaia released the kraken on us. Get it? Released a kraken?')

He was reading The Art of War again. He'd never told anybody, but the reason he liked the book so much was partially the content, partially the little notes his mom had left in it. He tried to figure out what she'd been thinking when she highlighted a passage, and read the scrawls in the margins of the pages. Some of these things he wanted to highlight himself. It felt like a piece of Mom was always with him, stuck under his pillow. He realised how much he missed her when all he had were these scraps of her.

That's when Hazel sat down in front of him. He looked up. The boat was always bustling with activity and with people having to be here and there that he hadn't kissed her since the Feast of Fortune. He'd really hoped that something would happen between both of them, but that was impossible now. Besides, saving the world was now a priority and she was way too stressed (according to Leo, that was) as it was. Frank didn't want to confuse her furthermore. Just as he looked up to her, Frank saw how sick she looked. Sunken eyes tinged with an unhealthy yellow, her nails were nervously chewed, her shoulders were slumped, and she looked stick-thin.

"Hey," Frank said. "'What's up?"

"The sky," she said without enthusiasm.

"What's wrong?" Frank asked immediately. She looked tired.

"I need to talk to you," she said. "Like; _really _talk to you."

"Okay," he said. They were alone. "What about?"

She closed her eyes. "Leo put me up to it. He says sorry that he lied but that I made him do it, and I did."

"Lied? What?" Frank asked. He trusted Leo at this point, was he wrong to?

"You sent him to figure out what was wrong with me, right?"

Was she mad? He couldn't tell. "I'm sorry, you just didn't tell me, and I didn't think you would."

Hazel sighed. "I _was _mad. Quinn talked me out of it. You were right, I wouldn't have told you."

"But you told Leo," Frank said.

"He annoyed it out of me," Hazel said. "I didn't want not to tell you."

"So… there _is_ something not-right going on?"

"Yes," Hazel said. "Big time. I'm not stressed, well, not primordially."

She scooted closer to him and took his hand.

"Frank, I'm… I'm not doing so well, and it's not because of, like, fatigue or stress."

He got a bad feeling in his stomach.

"Are you sick?"

"Sort-of."

He listened, but he could barely manage to sit down and _not _stand up and yell at her that she was wrong, that she would be okay, that she shouldn't say Styx like that. Maybe because… he kind-of believed it?

She observed him with glittering gold eyes. "You're not mad? Frank? Frank? Please, say something."

"No," he said. "I mean, no I'm not mad at you. It's not your fault."

"You still look mad."

Frank looked at the cover of The Art of War. He knew that on the inside, there was a scrawled note that said 'To Em from M' which must've been an inside joke. An inside joke long forgotten because the world had changed and thwarted and moved forwards from someone good. That idea made Frank's stomach tighten when he thought of Hazel. Maybe she'd be one of those forgotten inside jokes in ten, twenty, thirty years. He knew that you couldn't stop people from evaluating and growing and getting over things, but he knew that he didn't want that. He didn't want Hazel to die. He didn't want the world to be Hazel-free.

"I'm not mad," he said. _Not at you at least. I don't know who to be mad at._

"Really?" Hazel asked.

"I'm sad," he said. "But I'm not mad. Chin up, though. You're not dead, and you might not die, and you probably won't die. I mean, the good die young, but it never said anything about the perfect." She blushed, and when Frank caught on with what he said, and he blushed too.

"That's sweet," he said. "But…"

"No buts. Just face the world." Frank said. "No pun intended."

She laughed. "I should've told you earlier. I could use more people than Leo and Josie making me laugh."

"I'll try to keep up with _los espagnoles humour._" Frank said. He opened his arms and she burrowed herself against him. She breathed evenly and wheezily, but Frank suspected that she had to concentrate hard to make it happen. There was something comforting about being able to make someone feel better when you felt like total and utter Pegasus dung.

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS IN THE HOUSE!<strong>

(From top of the list of reviews to the bottom)

Guest- Glad you do!

Guest- AWW THANKS!

Ryan McCann- No I won't (:P), check at the top of chapter 72 for the list of the seven

Guest- Malcolm's plan is coming, but a lot needs to happen in New Rome and on the Argo II before I can get to that. Can't tell you more, but there's enough packed into the next few chapters to hold you (I hope :/) And as for Percy and Annabeth… Nobody will really know until the last chapter.

Guest- Well, there is a point and I'll get there when I can.

PS- Right now I feel silly because I don't know if 'Guest' is one person, or if a bunch of people just types 'Guest' up in the 'Name' part of the 'send in your review' :P


	75. XXXXVII Percy, Leo, Malcolm

**Hello! So I forgot that today was Tuesday because yesterday everything was closed since Canada day was the day before (which made sense to somebody in the government) so in my head it was the Sunday of Canada day for 48 hours straight- but then I remembered that not everybody lives in my head so I edited this chapter for you! Ta-dah!**

**Recently I've spent a worrying amount of time on YouTube watching charlieissocoollike, vlogbrothers, and Vihart's videos on the Fibonacci sequence which is very cool and somewhat makes me want to figure out how to include it in a story.**

**And because of Charlie, when I was editing the chapter and reading it out loud to myself to try and find the typos (they're a breed of ninjas I tell you) I was reading it in a British accent. Also because of Charlotte Moore- who you don't know yet because she's not on the Internet yet, and I'm still not sure if she will be! **

* * *

><p>XXXXVII<p>

Percy

He paced back and forth and back and forth. He wanted to jump into the ocean and just get as far away from the stupid ship as possible.

Grover.

Wow. Just, wow. It wasn't enough for Gaia that her waking up had basically led to Annabeth being taken away from him. The girlfriend wasn't enough, it wasn't enough that he hadn't seen home in months and that it was about to get destroyed so he wouldn't see it ever again, or that Chiron was going to die, it wasn't enough that his mom was worried out of her mind and the last he'd heard of her was a message on the home phone, no. Of course not, she had to take away _Grover, _his best freaking friend in the whole freaking world.

He punched the mast. Leo didn't even say anything.

What was she doing to him? Was he safe? Was he hurt? Was he getting hurt? Were they going to force-feed him meat or poke him with a stick or what?

Percy punched the mast again and kicked it. He wanted to kick actual live things that would scream and were shaped like Gaia.

Annabeth and Piper were both livid. Annabeth was hugging her knees and her face was buried in them. This was a time when he'd go sit next to her and hug her and tell her everything was okay. He'd brush her hair off of her cheek and kiss her. But could he do that? No. Because Gaia had ruined everything and she was stubborn…

Like Tommy was doing with Piper, lucky guy. The universe wasn't trying to rip _them _apart.

He kicked the mast again.

"They're safe," Jason said. "If Thalia and Nico have been kept alive that long, they're fine. Gaia's not trying to hurt anyone, I heard them say it."

"He's eight," Annabeth snapped. "He's eight and he's mortal and he's my little-"

She just closed her eyes and got up.

"I'll be in the engine room," she said. Which was Argo II code for 'the rest of you should stay out' because locking yourself in the bathroom was just rude considering there were more than 10 of them and there was only one bathroom. Hiding in the engine room was the socially acceptable alternative.

Piper got up shakily.

"Jason's right," she said. Her voice was sweet and it felt like a hug, even if her charmspeak was relatively weak. "Gaia isn't in the business of hurting those we love. We shouldn't worry about them. The only thing we should worry about is us keeping going and not stopping. We'll rescue them. It's how we'll save the world."

Percy found himself nodding.

"Let's calm down. I'll make lunch," she offered. "That'll make everyone feel better."

"I'll help," Tommy said.

Piper's words made her some sort of Mother Teresa right then.

Leo

He leaned onto the control station and looked at her.

"I feel your eyes burning a hole in the back of my neck, Valdez," Josie said. "You can either look away or face my destructive wrath."

"I'm kind of tempted to check out what the whole 'wrath' thing is about," he said.

"I don't believe you do," she said. She was reading a book called 'Bird watching for Dummies'. "You know, I don't understand why I'm reading this, when will I ever need to watch birds and why am I harming my own teenager-weak self-esteem by calling myself a dummy?" Josie said, tossing the book.

"Annabeth and Quinn would kill for that."

"But Annabeth is slowly falling apart, Quinn is sick with worry and love, and I have a destructive wrath, I am unstoppable," she said.

"True enough." Leo said wondering where 'Quinn is sick with love' came from.

They'd taken the first guard of the night. It was supposed to be Annabeth and Piper, but both of them had gone into shock after Jason had told them about Mitchell and Matthew. The thought of an eight year old boy trapped by Gaia made Leo want to jump off the ship and swim towards wherever the prison was. He could only imagine how scared the poor kid was… no, he _knew _how scared the poor kid was.

And of course hearing about everyone else had brought the rest of the crew down, so there went morale. But oh well, it had to be said. Anyways, he and Josie were taking over.

She had barely talked. He'd even offered to play her favourite card game because she was bored but she'd said 'no' and kept staring into the sky. That was a post-tragedy, nostalgia-engulfing, long-hard-life adult thing to do. Leo had done it.

Anyways, he knew that someone needed to talk to her.

"You know, you and me aren't that different Josie." Leo said.

"One could argue that I am more attractive," Josie said half-mindedly.

"That depends if one is blind or not. Anyways, it's true." Leo said. "We're both out here covering for everyone because… well, because Gaia didn't find anyone to take from us."

"Hmm. I thought you were the funny one, now you're just getting kind of depressing." Josie said. She still didn't look at him.

"It's true," Leo said.

"The truth isn't funny." Josie said.

"You're mad, aren't you?"

"Valdez, the thing you need to know about me is that I am very often angry." She said, switching to Spanish.

"What do you mean?" Leo said. "Never mind." He said when he saw her shoulders tense. "You know it's cool right? Not to have anyone. I mean, it's not cool. Not really. But it's not… not _your _fault. Right? And like… It's not like we're the only ones in the universe who don't have anyone. Someone's gotta be that one kid for social services to toss around, to make them feel better and more accomplished."

"There's someone for everything," Josie said.

"And if it happens to be you…" Leo said. He wasn't good at making people okay with their situations. That's when you'd ask Piper and her sweet voice, Annabeth's logic, Jason's leadership, or Percy's charisma, Frank's honesty, Hazel's listening ear, Quinn's sweetness, Tommy's calming presence, whatever. Not him. He was the repair boy and cook. If he was going to fix something, he was going to need a bucket of nails and a tool belt, not words. "Well, it could technically _still be worst." _

"Right." Josie said.

"And it's not like it's your fault," Leo said. "It's the universe doing its thing. Old powers and mystical forces awakening and all. Not us."

"The other difference between you and me Valdez, she took everything away from _you, _whereas _I _kind of just got everything taken away from me by life." Josie said.

She got up and brushed off her jeans nonchalantly. "You're a big boy, and I'm a growing child. I need sleep while you can handle your toy." She said before heading downstairs.

Malcolm

"Hello Greeks and Geeks," Connor said like a broadcaster. "I am inside the bathroom of the Third Cohort's barrack and you have _no idea _what I had to do to the toilet to make it give me Iris messages."

"Yeah, nor do I want to know." Nyssa said. Malcolm was curious, but now was not the time. Was it some form of chemistry or..?

"Hey Connor, how is everything?" Travis asked.

"Good," Connor said.

"You're calling early, we didn't expect you." Malcolm said.

"Yeah, well, there's a game of Death ball tonight, so everyone's going to be in the baths and all. They're all at a prayer-gathering-thing in the fort. It's cool. I faked having stomach aches so I wouldn't have to go. I was all like 'yeah, but if I throw up on Joan…' and Brady let me stay here because he's already in the doghouse. They totally believed it because a) I am supreme and b) I had a hotdog eating contest with Josh yesterday."

"Is Josh this Roman you're seeing?" Travis asked.

"Shut up Travis, she's way prettier." Connor said.

"What's new?" Will asked to stop the Stolls from wasting their minutes.

"Nothing much. Praetor is getting more ticked off at the population and at the Loyal Cohorts by the minute."

"Connor, we've been debating this back from here," Malcolm said. "Do you think that it'd be time to alert the Loyal Cohorts that we _are _here?"

Connor stopped and thought. "I don't know. I wouldn't just yet. Wait until you know _when_ you'll infiltrate this place. You don't want anything to go wrong. I mean, I haven't found many people from cohorts three and five that I don't like, but just in case."

"See? He agrees," Malcolm told Clarisse. She'd been all for telling them now and charging into Rome. Malcolm was of the opinion that you couldn't wing an operation like that. "What about Reyna? Any news?"

"No. Sometimes we see guards go down, and a while back Joan went down and then five guards had to run down. She came back with a cut on her cheek and she was even more ticked off towards the legionnaires making out on the streets."

"So you?" Travis asked.

"Funny. No, Gwen and Dakota. The rumours were funny, but from what I can tell she's still alive. And fighting."

"'Course she is," Clarisse huffed.

"Is there any way that you can contact her?" Malcolm asked. "We need a Roman on our side, someone who _knows _how the legion will react." This frustrated him.

"You do," Nyssa said, touching his arm. His stomach tingled.

"I guess from history books, but this hasn't happened in history." Malcolm shook his head.

"What about all the other dudes from camp? Are they there?" Connor asked.

"Yes. We're all here now." Malcolm said. His stomach tightened. "The nature spirits are protecting camp." He didn't want to mention to Connor that they'd gotten the distressing news from a very distressed group of nymphs that he hadn't been around that morning. He didn't want to add to Connor's worries. Especially considering that Gleeson Hedge had been the only one to regain his calm and step up. Malcolm wasn't entirely sure if the satyr was senile or not, but he definitely had the spirit, and he was more confident than Malcolm was by a longshot, so hopefully things would do okay.

"For how long?" Connor asked.

"For as long as they can."

"And after that?"

"Connor, do I really need to describe destruction and death to a survivor of the Titan War?" Malcolm asked.

"No." Connor asked. "No, I'm cool thanks. Is anybody still at camp? Apart from the satyrs and all that?"

Nobody said anything until Clarisse finally made her mouth and jaw move and said; "Chiron."

Malcolm closed his eyes. He hated himself for making that call. Everyone told him that it was logically the best decision, but logic wasn't what made people feel guilty and horrible and destructive. Emotions did that. And right now, Malcolm couldn't believe he'd let Chiron there. The old centaur had talked to him. His hair and beard were completely white now. His eyes had an unhealthy yellow tinge. Dark blue veins snaked around his arms and neck. Wrinkles were folding his skin on itself. He looked scrawny and weak for the first time in… ever, actually. He was permanently settled in his wheelchair now.

Malcolm remembered the last conversation he'd had with his old teacher on IM, perhaps the last conversation any demigod would have with him.

"I will only stand as long as Camp Half-Blood one way or another. That has always been my destiny. Free the Romans before it's too late, Malcolm, or Camp Half-Blood will completely fall."

"The camp will be destroyed."

"Camp Half-Blood is far more than just a place, Malcolm." The old man had said, with a glint in his eyes, as if he were talking about his favourite thing in the world. "Talk to Percy, talk to Annabeth. Talk to Percy _and _Annabeth. Grover, Leo, Jason, Piper, Drew, Travis, Connor, Will, any of my old pupils. It won't be destroyed."

And then before Malcolm could protest or argue or inquire or even so much as blink, Chiron had cut the IM.

"Ah," Connor said.

"Yeah," Malcolm said. "Ah."

"Any other questions?" Clarisse growled.

"Yeah, I have _two _drachmas left, this operation is harder and taking more time than we thought."

"Find _denarii, _we were told it works now." Malcolm said.

That's when he heard a door unlock and open and he followed Connor's panicked gaze towards the front door. Damn it, if a Roman uncovered them now and attacked they were so screwed and-

"Colin?" The girl at the door asked. She was a very pretty Arabic girl; Malcolm had to admit that she was actually kind-of gorgeous. Her eyes were a strong chocolate brown, and her hair was lush black waves. She was armed and wore pieces of her armour, but under it she was wearing a purple t-shirt tucked into skinny jeans.

"Cate," he said. "I-"

"I thought you'd passed out in here or something." She said, wondering inside, her eyes as if she were the first explorer to see something wonderful. "But I heard you talking."

Connor tried to cut in front of the IM but Cate slapped his arm away and she could see it anyways. She looked at Malcolm and the others, who didn't speak.

"The writing on the back wall," she said.

Travis jumped in the air to try and cover it.

"Those weird letters… that's an omega-3 or whatever… it's Greek isn't it?"

Cate turned around and looked at Connor with shocked eyes. She'd put two and two together.

"You're- you're with them. You're- they're- you're Greek and you… you…"

"Cate, I can really explain, you'll probably-"

Cate smacked him, a good '9' on the flesh-hits-flesh scale.

"Jerk!" she said. She hit him again, an '8'. "Liar at that!"

"Cate, I'm sorry, it's because-"

She took a knife from her side and Connor had to jump back to avoid getting chish-ka-bobbed. Her words were cold and scary; "Don't talk to me, don't touch me."

She sprinted out and Connor looked suddenly really lost and crushed.

"Run after her, man!" Will yelled out. "She's a pretty girl!"

"And you quite obviously like her!" Drew added, elbowing Will.

Connor ran.

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS<strong>

(Ps- thank you for all your consideration about the whole 'Guest' and 'Guests' mix up. I thought that people still picked their own signature/screen names/thingies)

**Top to bottom on the review page!**

Guest- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Guest- Thanks! To me that's so weird, because in my head Quinn ain't new :P

Guest- Very long. And it will move sooner very soon. I'm kind-of walking through molasses right now. Not literally because it'd smell weird, but… yeah.

Guest- No, she won't tell him until they both live if they both live, because if not it defies the purpose and she did this to herself for nothing.

Guest- I don't know how long it'll be, but it'll be very long D:

Guest- Yes, which is why Tommy switched the language to French so only a minimal amount of people would understand. Also French in Canada and Louisiana is very different than French from France, which is what I think Piper speaks since she's got the whole 'Country of Love which is France', and what I believe Tommy would have been taught to speak since he is in Europe. Although it's a very interesting question for Frank for me, because he was taught textbook French not the French that I would speak. But I forgot to mention that Quinn speaks French too… I am _so _sorry I rambled.


	76. XXXXVIII Piper

**HELLO! **

**Action will resume at this part of the book, it's surprisingly hard to write action stories that happen on a boat without overusing the whole 'magical islands that magically appear- yeay!' idea. Well, I suppose that some gods as well as Ouranos could've popped up, but it's too late for that now. **

**Dedication: To Leonardo Pisano Bogollo, who came up with the very cool Fibonacci sequence, and who spread the use of Hindu-Arabic numerals (1, 2) instead of the Roman numerals in Europe. THANK YOU. (I had issues with chapter numbers today) **

* * *

><p>XXXXVIII<p>

Piper

"Piper… Piper…"

Someone was tapping on her shoulder repeatedly and it was really annoying. There was no wake-up time on the Argo II. Wake-up time was defined by when everyone already awake made too much noise for you to keep sleeping.

"Piper, wake up."

She'd taken the guard shift from midnight to two o'clock, and she'd covered for Quinn instead of waking her up because it was an unspeakable (and Quinn-hated) general agreement/policy never to wake up Quinn when she [i]_did_[/i] sleep. She felt like she'd [i]_just_[/i]fallen asleep.

She moaned. "Leave me alone."

"I can't, you really have to wake up." Someone said.

"You better be Tommy if you're waking me up."

"I am."

"Well, at least there's that." Piper muttered to herself. She finally opened her eyes. He was kneeling next to her wearing a grey thermal t-shirt with long sleeves and jeans.

"You've got to go get dressed right now, we're docking soon." Tommy said.

Piper's eyes sprawled. "What? Has someone spotted a-"

"No, don't worry, no giants." Tommy said. "But… It's… I don't know how to say it."

"Can you say it in French?" She asked.

"No, the problem isn't language. I just don't know how to explain it." Tommy said. Well that couldn't be good.

Hazel, Leo and Percy were being woken up. When Piper had grabbed her bag of clothes, Josie had come down, cleared her throat and yelled "WAKEY-WAKEY LOSERS!" It was a rough wake-up, Piper was so glad Tommy had shaken her awake.

When she got out of the bathroom she was wearing jeans capris, a black tank top and a brown hoody which she realised was Tommy's–which was the only thing he'd really gotten to keep from the Camp. He gave it to her last night because he'd noticed her shivering- right. Everything made sense now.

Leo and Percy were awake and pulling on clean shirts, pelting Jason with questions that Jason seemed also unable to answer. Frank was still trying to coax Hazel out of a heavy sleep- she seemed to be sleeping more heavily than usual lately, which worried Piper.

As she twisted her hair into something decent, she watched Hazel. She just seemed to get sicker and sicker, yet tougher and tougher, each day. Piper dropped her bag against the wall and found Ella on the staircase.

"What's wrong?" Piper asked Ella.

"Bad things." Ella said. "Guerilla attack, ninja, thirteenth century Japan-"

Piper walked around her and got upstairs, tying Katoptris to her waist. It looked like it was around four in the morning, approaching twilight but not quite there yet.

"Where are we docking?" She asked, hoping someone would listen.

"This is not good," Annabeth said. She looked half out of her mind with worry, and Annabeth's mind was a big and hard place to get out of. "Nuh-uh, this is not good. I'd be thrilled at any other time, but…"

Piper grabbed her arm. "Annabeth, what's going on?"

"Why would you be thrilled any time but now?" Jason asked.

"The air is smoky." Annabeth said. "Watch, see that smoke over there?"

"Yeah," Percy said.

"That fire was _big. _It wasn't for cooking or keeping warm, besides, it's plenty warm."

Piper frowned. That was right. Last night she'd been plenty glad to have Tommy's hoody, but today she was fine. A little hot even.

Annabeth carried on, "-That comes from a funeral pyre, and if Quinn's right about where we are…"

"Where would that be, again?" Piper tried again, addressing herself to Tommy this time. He already had his spear in hand.

"I think Troy," he whispered back.

Piper's jaw dropped. [i]_Troy?_ [/i]Like [i]_the_[/i]Troy? Helen-of-Troy Troy? Paris and the golden apple, the Greek alliance, and the horse: [i]_Troy_?[/i]

"You're kidding." Piper said, even if she knew that Tommy would not kid.

"-Plus, a funeral pyre that big would be for a notable death…" Annabeth said.

"So for a general," Percy said.

"Or a massacre," Jason said.

"Right," Annabeth nodded.

"Let's go for general, less death." Leo said.

"Or massacre. Less people to kill us," Josie said.

"-And I think I'm right, so this would be around the time of the death of…" Annabeth said.

"Achilles," Quinn breathed in awe. The two sisters read each other's minds better than Josie read the future.

The name of the hero sent a chill down Piper's spine. She'd heard about him. From the myths, from her dad, from Chiron, from [i]_every single demigod_[/i]_. _She honestly thought you'd get the better end of the deal if you were Achilles than if you were Hercules.

"I met him once," Percy said.

"I want to hear that story." Jason said. "But not now. Is it safe to approach the coastline?"

"Of course it is, there's war. War is so safe. I love war, I made it a casserole in prevision of this." Josie said.

"Well buddy, I hate to tell you this, but the boat's driving itself right now." Leo said, pounding on his buttons and pouring and fretting over his levers and thing-a-ma-bobs.

"O-kay," Frank said. "Demon ship."

"Say that again to my face, will you?" Leo said pulling out his trusty battle-hammer.

"Whoa guys," Piper said. She hadn't missed the faces of Jason and Percy (and everyone else, but especially Jason and Percy) when Leo had said that. "First off, Leo, you don't need to pound Frank's face in. Frank, apologise to Leo."

"Sorry," Frank said immediately. Yeah, Piper had to use charmspeak this one time.

"We just need to keep calm," Piper said. "We're being pulled back to Ancient Troy, if our residential daughters of wisdom are right."

"Which they are," Josie said. "By the way… Oh, hello Hazel."

Hazel had just come above deck. Her hands were shaky and she was holding on to the railing. She nodded her head at them as a hello. She didn't even smile. She just went to stand next to Frank, and Piper didn't miss the way she was leaning on him a bit. Frank let her and kissed the top of her head. She leaned on him more, which seemed to help her a bit.

"We have an advantage over the people there, right? We know what's going to happen. Okay; what happens after the death of Achilles?"

"The Greeks realise that they'll lose," Annabeth said.

"And so Odysseus-"

"Bless him." Annabeth said.

"Bless him-starts patenting a ruse." Quinn finished.

"This ultimately turns out to be the Trojan horse."

"And the fall of Troy," Quinn nodded.

"We have a slight case of twin telepathy this morning," Josie said. Nobody chuckled.

"Wow. Looks like we'll be around for the end of the world." Leo said.

"Not necessary Valdez," Piper said.

"We'll probably get separated the second we get off the ship." Jason said. "By the armies and the people and whatnot."

"How? Why?" Hazel asked.

"Prison cells, of course." Josie said. "Well, him anyways."

All the guys looked at each other wondering which 'him' was going to end up in a prison. Piper was putting her money on Valdez.

"Who, Josie?" Jason asked.

Josie didn't say anything; she ignored him and picked at her nails.

"Fine then," he said. "Let's just promise that we'll connect back at the Argo II as soon as we-"

At that their clothes changed.

She looked around as all the guys' jeans and camp T-shirts turned into bronze armour with designs forged in. Except for Leo for some reason, he was wearing a plain chiton up to his knees, tied around his waist.

"Not fair! Why do [i]_I_[/i]get a dress?" He asked.

"Why do [i]_you_[/i]all get armour?" Hazel asked.

The only girl wearing a complete set of armour was Annabeth.

Hazel was wearing a plain chiton with a hoof print on the stomach and a few stains. Her hair was braided to her head, which looked so unlike her it was scary. Quinn looked a little more like what you'd see on a vase or clay shard; a long white dress with straps over her shoulder and a shale around her shoulders; a regular peasant. She clipped her glasses to the top of her dress and hid it with her shale.

"If I can't see a thing, this is going to be a long day," Quinn sighed softly.

Josie was dressed in white with dozens of gold bracelets clinking at her wrists, and metal hairbands in her hair. They wouldn't lose her with all the noise that made.

Piper looked down at herself and had flashbacks of her claiming night. A white dress with a gold string around her waist, and a necklace with a charm of gems bunched together. She touched her hair and felt it until she determined that it was now a braided coil at the base of her neck. She also felt hairbands in her hair. Why did she get it fancier? That just wasn't fair.

"My guess would be that we're about to fit in with the rest of Troy- whether it's in the city or in the battlefield." Quinn said.

"She's right," Annabeth nodded. "I'll wager that the boys are about to fight, and the girls and Leo are about to go into Troy for any reason."

"What about you?" Piper asked. "You're wearing armour."

Annabeth pinched her lips. "That I don't know."

"Time to find out," Leo said.

The boat had pulled up to a low cliff.

* * *

><p><strong>HELLLOOOOOOOOOO Annons!<strong>

**Top down!**

Guest- Hi and thanks!

Ryan- Don't need to ask, I'll always answer anyways. I suppose I can try, though I do get bored and tend to flip-flop. Also I have this bad habit of ending on lines which I find dramatic instead of just going with the flow and keeping the PoV alive. Chapters getting longer is kind-of an issue because if I waste all of my pre-stocked material I die of exhaustion and that's no fun for anyone, particularly you and my loved ones, but I'd be quite touched too :P

Guest- Yes I know, but I posted on Canada Day, so that kind-of makes up for it right? I gotta pace myself with what I have already written.

Blayze (you were guest, but Blayze sounds so much better)- 1) No I do not enjoy World Suck, but I do enjoy messing with people's minds.

Guest- THANKS!

Guest- No the story is just the same, it's just that I've separated my plot into 3 'books' that are part of the same grand-scheme-of-things since that's what RR's gonna do, so that it all comes down to 5 books.

Guest- My brother's 8 too, and if Gaia got him, well Gaia would be in trouuuuuble, so I feel your pain on this subject. Yes I will finish this story, and things will be unclear until the last chapter of the whole thing.

Loverofthisfic(notguest)- Glad you liked it! Also HA!

Lily- Sorry Lily, I disappointed, but at least I didn't call you guest. Also Lily, I never post at the same time, but usually it's before 11:00 PM and after 9:00 AM if that's helpful (no it's not).

Guest- I have this concept in my head that eight-year-olds are actually the only people in the world who are sane. The rest of just are just insane for not finding joy in easy poo-poo jokes and the little things. Plus he's not sure if he's dreaming or not, and he can't see through the mist so he's confused.


	77. IL Frank

XXXXIX

Frank

Frank was secretly glad that only Annabeth had armour amongst the girls. The feminists would yell at him, but it was because if Hazel got on a battlefield at this point, she would never get off of it alive.

The cliff was right there.

"Off we go," Piper said. "Gods, this is going to be complicated in a dress…"

It ended up that the weakness of demigod girls was doing things while wearing a dress. They just couldn't do it. Piper was the most agile and it was still very sad. It was ridiculous. Frank thought that Hazel would've done great having worn nothing but dresses for the first thirteen years of her life if she were feeling better.

Leo was just really uncomfortable and struggling with his identity.

"Maybe I should call myself Lea…"

"Shut up Valdez, pretend it's a kilt. Men do manly things while wearing kilts." Frank said.

Tommy whispered something to Piper and she touched that ring she wore on her neck, nodded and kissed him on the cheek.

Frank waited behind Hazel. He was _sure _that she'd fall back.

"Well, what now?"

"The Argo II's anchored," Leo said. "Tyson and Ella can watch out for it, can't you?"

"Yes Leo." Tyson said. "Tyson and Ella will watch over Argo II."

"With your lives?" Leo demanded.

Tyson hesitated.

"He's kidding," Piper said. "It'll be fine. We'll figure out why we were brought here and we'll come back as soon as we can."

"Okay. That is alright." Tyson said. Ella was muttering what Frank thought vaguely was the Odyssey.

"Let's go," Jason said, his face steel. "No time to lose if we really are barging into history while the plot thickens."

They walked closer to the action. The battlefield was empty. Behind enormous and unbreakable walls, the city-state of Troy lay. Guards were at the watch towers and it looked more secure than a prison might.

"Where to now?" Percy asked. "The city or the fields?"

Piper hissed.

"What?" Frank asked turning towards her.

"Katoptris is gone," she said. "It's not at my waist but it was ten seconds ago!"

"Hey, I don't have a gladus anymore. It's a Greek sword, a Xiphos." Jason said checking his weaponry. Frank checked his side, and indeed he was armed in the Greek way too.

"At least _you're _armed," Hazel said. Quinn crossed her arms, clearly insulted, and Josie picked the decorations out of her hair.

"It seems that Troy is an oasis of ancient history on earth. In all its glory; the heroes, the war, the clothes, the fact that women were wives and baby-makers and that's about it. Joy." Piper rolled her eyes. Annabeth shifted her weight, thinking.

"It won't be that bad." Frank tried.

"Speak for yourself, male."

"It's no use arguing about it. We can't change the past. Here, I've got a dagger you can have, Quinn. Anybody else?" Jason asked.

Frank handed his dagger to Hazel who was quick to figure out how to hide it. Piper got a knife from someone too and she balanced it in her hand before making it disappear too.

"That's better. Let's go." Jason said.

"Okay, so I was trying not to say it but I just can't. Jason, you, a Roman, was just moments ago quoting The Lion King," Leo sing-sang as they moved up.

Percy fell back until he walked next to Annabeth.

"You have no idea why you're dressed like that?" He asked her.

"No. Get away from me." She said sharply.

Percy walked closer to Frank and Hazel. Frank watched his face to check and see how much that comment had hurt. Why was his ex-quest team falling apart? Percy noticed.

"This should be fun, right?" He said. "Yell 'IPhone!' out, confuse the heck out of them, and run."

Hazel didn't smile and Frank suspected that she didn't know all about iPhones any more than the Trojans and Greeks might.

They were nearly at the right place when there was a commotion at the battlefields. Frank turned around faster than anybody else and saw huge fireballs catapulted from the walls of Troy to the Greek army advancing. There was some yelling in Greek that he recognised as 'Break! Break the lines!' Wait, Frank spoke Greek?

"We've got to go," Jason and Percy said at the same time.

"Everybody in armour," Jason added. "That looks bad. It's raining fire on the Greeks, they won't last long."

Frank saw what he meant. Some of them were reaching the campground the soldiers had set up for themselves, sending medics and the general's servants running and causing big puffs of smoke to go up in the air.

He drew his sword as everybody armed did.

"Frank, stay with the other girls." Annabeth said.

"What?"

"If they show a weapon we're dead and we're exposed," she said. "If they're walking around alone, they'll get jumped, then they'll show a weapon, then we're exposed. Full circle, stay with them."

"Dang it," Piper said, really ticked off now. Annabeth gave him a pointed look and Frank knew that she was thinking about Hazel.

"Okay," he said.

"What about me?" Leo asked. "What am I, dear gods?"

"You're not armed, genius. If you spray fire, we're screwed then too." Annabeth said. "Frank, just stick with them."

"Got it," he said. "I'll play bodyguard."

Piper said, "You guys go, we'll get inside the city, see what we can find."

And with that, Percy, Annabeth, Jason and Tommy ran to the battlefield.


	78. L Cate

XXXXX

Cate

She turned a street's corner, her shoes sliding across the gravel. She turned into the back alley of a coffee shop and pushed herself against the wall, half of her wishing that she could go further.

Most girls eavesdropped on their boyfriends and found out that they were, like, gay or cheating on them. She eavesdropped on her boyfriend and found out that he was Greek.

Gods, she should have known. He was too out of it to be Roman. Too fun, too much of a prankster, too energetic, too optimistic too god-dang _perfectly Colin. _Or what was it that they'd called him? Connor? Gods- that didn't suit him as well as Colin did. Was Roberson his real name?

Cate didn't have a problem with the Greeks. She liked Leo Valdez as much as the next Third Cohort kid, she thought Annabeth Chase was more cunning and badass than any of Indiana Jones' and maybe even The Doctor's companions, Percy Jackson was a cool praetor who'd pretty much saved Rome from having Octavian in power, Piper was sick, et cetera. They ticked off Joan. Heck- she loved the Greeks!

What she _was _ticked off about was the total lie she was submerged in this whole time.

It was like finding out after years and years of living with the best parents in the world that you were adopted from a family of aliens. You couldn't look at your parents the same way, you couldn't look back on family pictures the same way, you couldn't even remember dear memories the same way. That was exactly how Cate felt about Colin now. She was furious. She would've stabbed him through the throat and fed him to one of the monster lying outside the gates if she wouldn't have a conscience. Or that tight and hurting thing right under her throat.

That was the worst part. She could be angry; it was easy to be angry. She did that all the time. Cate was nearly always angry with somebody; often authority. But she felt hurt. And not hurt like she had when Joan had made her do push-ups, or when she'd gotten a punch in the eye by the guards. Hurt, like, oh my god, I can't believe he did that to me.

People always believed that they could get hurt physically and no blood ever surprised them; but they never thought people could hurt what was inside. Had she been lied to? She really, really liked Colin. She liked being with him, she liked his jokes, she liked his stories, his 'you look really pretty today', she liked his compliments and they made her feel good. Were those lies too?

She blinked tears away. She couldn't stand it.

She heard shoes slipping on gravel and she saw Colin at the mouth of the alley, breathless as if he'd ran to catch up.

"Cate," he said. "Oh gods, Cate, let me explain, please, I'll give you literally anything."

"Your head on a spear," she growled.

"Okay, nearly anything." He said. He was panting. "It's true. You're right, I'm Greek. I'm from Camp Half-Blood."

"Oh gods," Cate choked. "I should kill you on sight, those are my orders after all."

He panted and said, "Yeah but I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that. Besides, you're rebellious. You're Cate."

"Yeah, I'm not the one who _lied_."

"Lied?" Colin asked as if the idea had never crossed his mind. "Okay, I guess I did. I'm so sorry. I didn't- I… It's kind of a long story."

"And it doesn't take long for me to yell out that I found a Greek. Talk." Cate said, gripping the knife she held.

"Okay, okay. We were at camp, minding our own business and wondering why we couldn't communicate with Rome. Then these two metal dogs appeared with messages from the old praetor. Reyna, I guess."

"Aurum and Argentum," Cate said. "We'd all thought they'd run away."

"These things are too vicious to run from something," Colin said. "We learned that this guy Octavian forced the Argo II to leave early. In her letter, Reyna wrote that she'd be imprisoned soon. Guess she knew that she wouldn't be able to fight off, like, half the legion. I was supposed to be the eyes and ears of the Greeks until we could figure out how to free Reyna. Helping. That's all we're doing, I swear to the gods Cate. I swear to the gods, on the river Styx and on the earth."

Thunder boomed at his promises.

"Connor, if that's even your name, I'm from the Loyal Cohort Alliance. I hate Joan. I hate the anti-Greek movement more than anything right now. I am your _girlfriend. _And you still thought that you had to lie to me? Don't you trust me?"

"The guys back at HQ really wanted me to keep the secret."

"Oh, and did the guys back at HQ tell you to run after me? To, like, reel me into your little plan? Convince me not to say anything so I wouldn't ruin it?" Cate asked.

"No. But they told me to run after you. They said I obviously loved you." He said.

Butterflies took off in her stomach but she slapped a net over them.

"Is that a lie too?"

"I couldn't lie about that."

"I don't know. You lied about some pretty important things. What's your real name? Are you really a descendant of Mercury? Do you actually believe in having dinner for breakfast? I can't tell who you are anymore because that just got thrown out the window. I don't trust strangers."

"You did when I came around."

"What's your name, wise guy?" Cate growled.

"Connor. Connor Stoll," he said. "And that is my actual dad. Well, Hermes is."

The name of the Greek god sent anger through her body again. She couldn't just let this go. Nuh-uh, Cate did _not _like being lied too, especially not by the people she was supposed to trust with her life. She wanted to just wipe away what she'd heard and seen in the Greek message thing, but she couldn't. It was shot into her bloodstream and frozen to her mind now, drawn on the inside of her eyelids. It was like she had some twisted kind of double vision. She saw Colin Roberson and Connor Stoll at once now.

She wasn't sure if she could like the second person, or if she could forgive the first.

"At least there's that." She said bitterly.

"Cate, you've got to believe me." Colin said. "I really, really _am _sorry. I wasn't supposed to get closer than necessary to anyone, but-"

"Oh, so I'm not _necessary." _

"No! No, that's not what I meant! To me you are," Colin said. "Gods, I don't know how to explain this anymore…"

"Good. Just don't worry about it Mr Stoll." Cate said coldly before walking back into the fort's main area.

She would've gone back to the prayer-to-Janus thing to avoid him running after her again, but tears prickled in her eyes.

* * *

><p>Malcolm<p>

They were playing the 'what's the worst that can happen and what can I do about it?' game.

Drew kept saying "She's not going to rat him out, did you see how they looked at each other for that second before they were mad?", but Malcolm planned for a rescue too. They had at least a map of the Fort, and a few of the hours of 'when the guards pass'.

With a little luck, the will of their grumpy gods, and a damn good plan, they would be able to get Connor out, and possibly Reyna at the same time.

That's when they got a second Iris message. He was pale, like Connor always got when he was shocked, and he looked paralysed and surprised.

"Connor, are you okay? Are snipers aiming their bows at you as you speak? What did you tell her?" Travis asked.

"I explained everything," Connor said.

"Are you hurt? Are you okay?" Malcolm asked.

"No." He said.

"Connor, honey-" Drew started. Malcolm would've taken these words of wisdom from the daughter of Aphrodite, but Clarisse interrupted.

"Is she going to rat on you?" Clarisse asked –which was a really bad question to ask in that time.

"I don't know!" Connor said, madder by the second.

"Do you think we need to get you out of there before she does?" Malcolm asked, now that the subject had been approached.

"I don't care," Connor said. "Man, I'm tired of being your rat inside the fort!"

"Connor," Travis started, ready to work the brotherhood magic of the Stolls.

"No," he cut. "I don't care. Okay? Some things are more important to me than the plan, and Cate is, like, at the freaking tip-top of that list. I just blew it because of this. Act already! Show her that I'm not trying to destroy Rome with you guys!"

"Connor, we talked about this. We're waiting for a golden opportunity." Malcolm said nervously.

"Well I had one with Cate! You don't meet twenty million people like her. And it looks like it bugs you guys about as much as if I caught a cold." Connor spat.

"Connor, you don't think we feel bad about this?"

"No, you don't. Or at least you don't feel as bad as me." He said before slicing through the IM.

"Man, I gotta go in after him." Travis said.

"No," Malcolm said insistently. "Nobody's going in after him." He turned towards Drew.

"What do you think?"

"She won't tell on him." Drew said, shaking her head 'no'. "She won't."

"How do you know?" Malcolm asked.

"Because that would lead to his certain death," Drew said. "And who would wish that on the guy they love?"


	79. LI Piper,Haze,Frank,Josie,Cate,Anna

**Hi!**

**This chapter is short with many short points of view, but it's just to give you an idea and a base of where everyone is and what is happening. Also, a Point of View that many people have been asking for and that I hope is as confusing and somewhat surprising as I think the inside of ****'s head is.**

**I hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>XXXXXI<p>

Piper

Ancient Greek men: suckers for the eyelash batting.

She'd always hated using her charms to get places, especially now that she actually had a boyfriend. But this was necessary.

"We got lost," Piper said.

"So lost that you left the city while it's gated?" An older guard asked, dubious.

"Troy is just so big and beautiful," Piper replied, smiling and layering on the charmspeak. "We got distracted."

He nodded. "Of course. Common mistake."

"I see we're in a city of idiots," Frank muttered as they unlatched a door for them.

"Good, you'll fit right in." Leo said.

"Hurry in, Lady, there's a war going on." The guard said. "And things are flying through the air already."

Piper looked over her shoulder one more time. She knew it was foolish to hope to see any of them, but she couldn't help it. Hopefully none of them got hurt…

"Piper," Josie hissed. "You're creating traffic, move it, move it, they're barely warming up over there."

Piper stepped into the fortress of Troy, curtsying at the guard because it felt right, and stepped through the gates and down a tunnel.

"Does this tunnel represent how thick the wall is?" Frank asked, his voice echoing. Water dripped from the ceiling to the floor.

"It certainly does, lad." The guard said. "Why do you think those Greeks never got in?"

The rest of the walk was in silent.

When they emerged from the tunnel, Piper saw a city alight with life. It was as if there was no war outside; the Trojans were flowering in here.

The walls were lined with stalls and tables overflowing with ripe fruits, grains, metal jewellery, pots, and richly coloured silk. The Trojans themselves were richly dressed; even the poor and dirty children playing with metal hoops, dolls and spinning tops.

Men talked and laughed in deep voices, women argued for the price of whatever they were buying, and comforted children who came back weeping to cling on their legs. There were white houses with flat roofs. A cart was coming in through the city, the driver slapping the mule pulling it with a decent sized whip that could've taken down a hellhound, and yelling at people to get out of his way.

Two people each held one end of a pole with chicken tied by the legs to it and navigated the maze. Someone led two llamas through the crowd saying 'yip, yip, yip'. Piper hadn't heard that much Ancient Greek chatter even at Camp Half-Blood.

"Wow, guys…" Piper said, turning back to face the others.

They were gone.

When she turned back to the market, it was gone too.

She was standing in a hallway with walls made out of mosaics, and a floor of huge circular golden tiles. It was bare except for the copper hangers on the wall, which Piper suspected would hold torches if it weren't day time. The doors were empty framed, with curtains of dark blue navies, rich purples, blood reds or natural greens giving the people inside privacy. She looked up at the ceiling and saw that it was blue, painted with clouds and gods and wind nymphs. She spotted the twelve Olympian goddesses, but it was obvious that Troy had its preferences; like Aphrodite and Apollo. Some gods, like Athena, had so little attention to them, that they seemed to have been put there just for the sake of it.

She took a step and her leather sandals echoed all around the empty hallway. She walked towards the door and moved the curtain to get a look inside. The room was obviously a kitchen, with a big fireplace that must be a stove seeing as a pot boiled with water right over it. It was filled by chattering and laughing cooks and exotic smells, and Piper immediately walked away from it.

She found storage rooms and empty rooms where the big windows let in a nice breeze.

"Helen!" Someone called.

Piper turned around and saw a blonde man, with the kind of muscles that came with training intensely, dressed with gold circlets. He had dull blue eyes that glittered with importance, and he was dressed rather well.

"You most frightened us," he said. He turned around. "Hippolytus! Hippolytus, you may stop fretting, I have found her."

"Yes my Lord Paris, very good my Lord Paris." A mousy and ratty servant said.

He turned back to Piper. "Whatever was it that went through your mind, Helen?"

Piper realised that he'd gotten her name wrong.

"No, you don't understand, see-"

She froze.

Paris was looking for Helen?

And… she was this Helen?

Oh Styx, her day was about to get complicated.

Hazel

She was on her own, she realised. She hadn't taken one step out of that tunnel, yet POOF, the others had disappeared as well as most of the market.

For a second she was really worried because that was how Nico had discovered he could Shadow-travel. By looking at a map of the world too long and then being yelled at in French by someone whose wedding picture he'd barged into.

Except this place was more reassuring than France. And familiar. Hay all over the ground, a wooden structure, stalls lining the walls, the smell of hay and animals…

She grinned. Whatever had just happened, whatever had separated her from the others, at least it wasn't some foreign place in Troy. This she could handle.

She walked down the center aisle of the forge. Reins and concoctions of leather straps that Hazel guessed were ancient harnesses hung between the stalls. Inside, there were majestic mares and stallions, with fur going from as white as snow to as grey as storm clouds and black as night. Some had gentle eyes; others looked ready to be ridden into war. Hazel looked for name plates –Sammy had always made sure that the horses were named and that the names were shown back when he'd been stable boy-but there were none.

She pushed a door into the back of the stable. Sacks of food, empty metal buckets stacked together and spare horseshoes and reins were set up.

And a man wearing a rich blue robe with long sleeves and snow white hair was lying on his front, splayed across the floor unconscient.

Frank

Frank was standing next to a door. He looked up and saw a huge white building with the symbols of gods etched into the walls in gold; Apollo in particular. Potted plants with great green spurts taller than he was, and exotic, humongous flowers stood between each window.

"What are you doing?" Someone hissed. He looked at his side and saw that a guy in full Greek armour with his irises turned towards Frank. He was holding a spear, just like Frank.

"I thought I saw something," Frank muttered.

"Warn me next time. Don't just _break formation." _

"Right," Frank said profoundly confused. "Sorry."

"You really are new." He said. Frank was pretty sure that no talking was also part of this, but whatever.

"Yeah," Frank said.

"You look young."

"I get that a lot." Frank said.

"Are you sure you're old enough to be working at the palace?"

"Of course."

_Palace? Yeay. What the heck is happening to us now? Where's Hazel? And Leo, Josie, Piper and Quinn? Are they okay? Gods, what is this? Is this Gaia or Juno? _

After that it was silence.

Frank was panicking inside. He couldn't see Hazel, or Piper, or Quinn, or Josie. There went 'stay with the girls, you're a dude and you're armed'. He wondered if they were all separated as well, and if so how would Hazel tough it out on her own?

_Shut up Frank, stop being overprotective. She's strong. She's capable of dealing with anything heaven and hell can throw at her. She'll be fine. _

But still… What was the universe playing at now?

A very agitated servant came out of the doors, waving one of her hands in the air agitatedly and holding a basket of laundry to her side.

"Aye, aye, aye- the princess is inconsolable and not even Cassandra can change that, what is this war doing now?" She turned towards Frank and the guard.

"Which one of you is youngest?"

"He is." The other guard said automatically.

"Well then you, come with me." The servant said. "If none of the handmaidens can talk through her grief, then maybe someone new can."

The other guard snorted. "Are you sure nobody's talked through your craziness, Ocypete?"

"You're the one to talk, sir. Too injured to fight in the war and bring our sons and husbands home." She turned back towards Frank. "Come young one. Off we go, the room's this way and we won't get there fast by walking." The servant, Ocypete said.

Frank had no choice but to follow even if he had no idea what was going on.

Josie

She looked left and right. Hmm. This was new.

Not Troy of course. Please, everyone's eyes had lit up as if this was Fairy Tale Land, but Josie had seen it in her dreams, and in her nightmares, since she was a little girl. The two llamas had been the highlight of going through that tunnel. She should've stayed on the ship. At least Ella she could fraternise with every now and then.

No, actually, no: this was interesting. She was curious. She liked this new development- she liked being on her own again. (She'd have to shoot whoever she said it to) She appreciated the company of more than simply Quinn and Hazel on that ship, the others were kind, but frankly, they were all as watchful as guard dogs. It was that sense of family that kept the crew together in all their Island of Misfit Toys' glory. She had to watch what she said around them; pretend to be surprised when surprising things happened; force her socialness to come out. No wonder running amuck in the streets of Magàla had done her so much good.

People thought she was diseased or crazy from spending time with homeless. People walked on the other ends of the sidewalks or walked faster when she stepped out from an alley, they ignored her, or whispered because she was quite young. She'd hated being homeless, but she'd loved being on her own. At least she'd loved having the possibility to be alone any time of the day.

She stood near a marble fountain of Apollo. _El bastardo, _she thought. If he'd been alive in Troy, he must've had kids in Troy. And he who must've had kids in Troy should've been better at parenting by the time he got around to impregnating people in Spain. She spit in the fountain's water. She got a few outraged looks, but she moved on.

She did not like this dress. She'd never expected to wear a dress again, the fates' gotten her that time.

Also there were a lot of clouds around. That was bad. Usually when there were lots of clouds, or lots of birds, her mind opened up so much more. Information just strolled in as if it owned the inside of her head.

She walked some more and stood near a bunch of musicians. Their music was horrible. It made her ashamed ever to have danced to any music ever.

She walked until she found better musicians. There were none. There was just a very entertaining man who was turning himself red while orating about the badness of the war to a bunch of nodding sheep-people in big straw hats and chitons.

Was she looking for signs of 'why they were there' like the others? Nah. She didn't care. She knew why, anyways. Was she even looking for the other person roaming the streets of Troy? Leo, Piper, Frank, Quinn? Not either, Piper and Frank were at the big important palace with Hazel. Valdez and Quinn would have to manage.

The big man was going to die soon. He'd have a heart attack. She wondered if it was because he was too fat; if his cholesterol or something was too high. No, wait- Troy would burn. That was a killer here.

"Bless you," she said half-mindedly.

The man next to her sneezed.

Everyone starred at her. Oops. Bad habit. Oh well, she always knew that that'd get her in trouble one day while she was traveling. Ha, she'd never expected to be traveling in Ancient Greece. She'd thought she'd be in freaking Barcelona, or as a stowaway in Germany. That was Plan A after she'd run away. Then she'd decided to stay because of what _would_ happen with the Argo II... It was always odd to plan your future by what it was already like.

"She-" the sneezy man said. He was on the verge of pneumonia. Goodness, the people of Troy were unhealthy.

_Oh well, they all burn tomorrow night anyways. That'll make their deaths short, instead of long and painful and bed-rested. Except for the ones who will be enslaved… _

"Yes, yes." Josie said. "Bless you again."

He sneezed.

Okay, fine, that was deliberate.

People starred at her in awe. The fat man stopped talking and huffed for a second like the big bad wolf, or maybe the New Rome tyrant after she'd bash that Cate Amjad girl about this or that tomorrow. Or the day after. Josie couldn't tell. She had a feeling this Cate Amjad girl with the long hair and the short boyfriend got in trouble a lot. Or she would, anyways.

"Gentlemen," he proclaimed. "That was the first sign shown to us by Cassandra, Princess to Troy –all hail- when she brought home to us the gift of sight!"

"Oooh, ahh." Josie said. Maybe they'd leave her alone if she was unladylike. Did she have any scabs that she could pick at? Any gas to resuscitate in a burp? No? Fine, then, universe, be that way. She didn't need karmatic energy anyways; she'd always managed without heavenly cooperation.

"Child," he said. "Are you..?"

"Maybe." Josie said crossing her arms. "Doesn't concern you, now does it?"

The man starred in awe, or possibly disapproval. It was a lot better to take disapproval as awe while going through life.

"Trojans," he said. "Our true oracle- one that we can believe!" He said, as if announcing the saviour of the galaxy. That was _not _on Josie's to-do-before-death list. She'd leave that to the others of the seven. "Girl- has Apollo gifted another one of his lovers with the gift of sight?"

"Why in the hell would I lip lock with my jerk of a father- that's disgusting, Fat One, you should know better." Josie blurted, hands on her hips.

He starred for a second.

"Tell us -daughter of Apollo, demigod- what is your name?"

Josie rolled her eyes.

"Giosetta, but if you call me that I kill you without any remorse." She said.

Cate

She walked inside the dining hall. The only free table was Josh and Connor's, as the rest were full of legionnaires who were taking up entire couches by lying down, or groggily sprawled on them because it was morning.

Nuh-uh. She was not eating with him. Not today. She was _so _not in the mood. Josh hadn't done anything to her, but Colin… Connor…

He looked up just in time to see her. His blue eyes were sad and they said 'I'm sorry'. He pointed to the table and raised a Dino nugget and made it walk around the air to try and make her laugh.

She turned around. She was superior to food. Breakfast was for losers, she decided.

She walked along the empty Fort streets. Nothing was open yet. Doors were closed and locked, blinds and curtains were pulled, chairs were put over tables, and signs were flipped from OPEN to CLOSE. You could hear a fly buzz right now in New Rome.

She turned into an alley that'd take her to the other side of the fort, back to the Third Cohort's barracks. She was sure _someone _had food in there. Or if not a shoe she could turn into food. She missed the magic store in New Rome where she and her sisters were allowed to try new spells and tricks; they were just figuring out how to turn rocks into hefty loaves of bread.

Suddenly she felt a blow to the back of her head and she fell on the ground, her head hitting the floor and flying back up.

She yelled and reached for her sword but she heard it get slipped out of the scabbard before she was even close. She tried to flip onto her back but she was pinned down, and then she was hit in the back of the head and her vision went blurry.

Someone threw her onto her back and she felt blows on her face. She yelled at each one and tried to struggle free and hit whoever it was back, but someone else held her arms over her head. Frigg, frigg, frigg…

She felt a blade slip through her flesh and slide from the bottom of her arm to her wrist. She yelled louder than ever.

"_Trivia filia tollo mors-" Before_ she could finish her curse, Cate got punched in the mouth and she felt blood slide across her tongue. She yelled again. She couldn't fight her attackers- she couldn't see, but she knew that there were many. And she was alone. She needed to grab somebody's attention.

"Help!" Cate yelled. Someone kicked her in the side and a hand blocked her scream. Cate stuck her tongue out and the hand flew back.

"HELP!" Cate yelled at the top of her lungs.

She was hit one last time across the face, and in the stomach, but what a hit.

Then she felt the pressure around her wrists drop and she crumpled against the ground. She heard running in footsteps. She pushed herself up but the nausea nearly overcame her. She dropped back. The world got blurry. And that was that.

* * *

><p>It must've been a while the next time Cate woke up. Her arms were draped over two people's shoulders and they were carrying her, she realised. One of them was Brady.<p>

"Joan, this isn't a time for your pickiness, she _needs help." _ Brady said.

"Until an augur can read the will of the gods, I make the choice, and _I_ decided that the cohorts disloyal to the changes in authority will lose what the authority provides."

"Medical treatment is not a privilege, it's a right!" Someone else said. Colin?

She heard protest.

"Joan, please, she lost a lot of blood." That was Gwen. Cate couldn't open her eyes more than that and they shut anyways.

Annabeth

"Who are we fighting for?" Percy asked.

"We need Troy to fall," Annabeth said. "Or else we don't have our Roman friends over here. The problem is, Jason fights Roman and Tommy fights... However it works."

"I can fake," Jason said.

"I can try," Tommy sustained.

"Just in case, we better split you two up." Annabeth said.

"I'll go to the Trojan side with Tommy." Percy said. "We'll melt ourselves into the ranks. You and Jason go fight with the Greeks."

"Done," Jason said. "Good luck guys."

"What, we'll need it?" Percy smiled. How could he be so friendly, at ease and humorous at the end of the world? Annabeth would never understand it. She loved him for it, though. But she didn't understand it.

_Shut up inside voice. Emotions. Whatever you are. _

They parted. She was a little worried about having Jason around. He was a Roman, and no matter how much concentration he'd put into it, he was never one for acting or looking or behaving or thinking or even _speaking _Greek. And she was a girl. Those were two things that either a) didn't exist yet or b) didn't exist on the battlefield. Somehow her situation was harder to hide than Jason's.

"We shouldn't be together. Fall to the back and go to the other side of the army. Just take orders from whoever is talking." Annabeth said.

"Got it," he said. Annabeth stopped and starred.

"You just spoke perfect Greek."

"For the first time," Jason grinned.

"Okay, go. Scram. Stay alive, I swore to Reyna that you would."

"That was a stupid promise to make." Jason said before darting off.

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS!<strong>

Top to bottom

Guest- If I do that, the stress will kill me. Do you want that?

Leolove- Yeah, I do think so, but I'm destroying so much of it, and people seem to like it, so I think it's alright. The next few chapters won't be about it so much, though.


	80. LII Cate, Annabeth, Hazel, Piper

**Hey guys!**

**Today you get two very long chapters because next week I'm not around Internet connection. **

**Another note: now, the Argo II crew are all on their own. They have to rely on their own skills to scrape by, and if they screw up, well that's that. It's really individual now. So I'd like you to tell me how you feel for all the different characters, and just overall how I'm doing. You guys never fail. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>XXXXXII<p>

Cate

When Cate woke up everything was a spinning blur for a second, as if she was on a rollercoaster. She felt numb for a second. Two people were sitting on her bunk under the window. Gwen was closest, humming, and Brady stood behind her. She wore her hair down- it was thick and straight and plentiful blonde. She wore a white knitted sweater and jeans. Brady was wearing shorts and a navy blue shirt, resting his head and arms against the bunk above hers. No armour…

He swore, "She's been out for long."

Gwen nodded but kept humming. Cate wanted to yell out that she was right there.

She heard people shuffling in the background and chilling on their bunks.

"Quiet, back there." Brady said. "Just because we're stuck in here doesn't mean I want any trouble. That means you too, Fifth Cohort."

"Brady," Gwen said softly. "She's waking up."

She heard the sound of armies rushing towards her but Brady wolf-whistled and yelled "Slow!" He turned back to her.

"Hey Cate," Brady said.

"G'day," she muttered. Someone made a deep 'WHOO!' sound and there was this round of applause as Cate blinked all of the blurry spots out of her vision.

Brady talked again when they'd finished, "You scared the Styx out of us."

"I scared the Styx out of me," she muttered. Her voice was _way_ quieter than she ever was and it sounded croaky and generally bad. "Where..?"

"You're in the barrack." Brady said.

"We're all in the barrack!" Someone in the back shouted.

"Yeah, Cohort 53 got kicked out of the program for today. Which means that we automatically lose death ball tonight, but that doesn't matter." Brady said. "How are you?"

"Numb," Cate said. The second she said it she didn't feel numb anymore. Sharp panes dashed across her face as if electricity was having a race.

"Owe!" Cate yelped. "Oh, man…"

"I'm sorry, we can only give you so much of our ambrosia rations." Gwen said. "You're lucky, Cate, you'd lost so much blood…"

"Please don't tell me you guys did a transfusion, like, here. Because I sleep here," Cate muttered trying to ignore the tingling all over her face.

"Wow, someone thinks she's really important to save," Brady said. "No, don't worry. Gwen put her nursing abilities to use."

"Yeah Gwen," someone yelled. Another round of applause. Cate tried to clap but her arms were heavy and painful.

"Can I get a mirror?" Cate asked.

"Sweetie, you may not want to see what happened right away." Gwen said as Brady held someone's locker mirror near her face.

Her lips were puffed up and cracked. Gauze was taped to her forehead, right above her eye. Her cheeks were two big blue bruises, and she had two black eyes.

"Looks as bad as it feels," Cate muttered. She dropped her head again. Dang it, she looked ugly when she was bloody and injured.

"Cate," Brady said. "I know that you're tired, but we need to know as soon as we can. What happened to you?"

Cate was embarrassed to explain. She'd been so stupid to go wandering off on her own. She should have known that Joan had a price on her head. After she swore at the praetor and attacked the second cohort's Head Centurion, she should have known that Joan wouldn't just let Brady bail her out, or let the story end there. She should have expected this. Some kind of… of punishment.

Also she didn't want to have to explain that she had broken up with Connor/Colin because he was a little lying Greek and she was too mad at him to sit down and have breakfast. She… she wasn't mad enough to send him to jail. There was that part of her that still saw his face as the kid who was running towards the Caldecott tunnel on the first day, the guy who'd stolen her birthday card from New Rome, the guy she'd kissed…

Cate told them that she wasn't hungry for breakfast, and then she'd gone back to the barracks. She described to attack, which made her whole body sweat coldly, and her injuries seemed to hurt more. It was probably just in her head, though. She flinched and Gwen unwrapped another square of ambrosia and poked small pieces that she broke off into Cate's mouth.

It tasted like warm chicken and garlic sauce, tomatoes and pickles, lettuce and onions, warm pita bread, and lots and lots of peppers. It made her think (and miss) her uncle's shawarma restaurant in Phoenix _so_ much. She used to go there at lunch breaks at school with her friends, and he'd put extra hot peppers in hers. Man, she wished she could go back to Arizona and see her dad. She'd thank him for the singing card. She'd get a shawarma (it was impossible to get them as good at Camp, the _aurae _just couldn't do it). She'd say hi to all the uncles and friends who always hung out at the restaurant. She'd talk Arabic to someone who actually spoke Arabic, and her uncle would promise to beat up the guy who'd called her a terrorists. Her dad would tell him not to threaten people like that.

She pushed the thought away –it was impossible to get out of Camp Jupiter right now- and kept talking.

Brady averted his eyes and bit his lower lip and walked away. He kicked the bunk before walking back to her.

"A hit and run. A hit and run, how un-roman is that?" Brady fumed.

"Very," Gwen said bitterly. She'd been killed on a hit and run as well.

"Why don't we just attack?" Someone blurted. That got a lot of backup.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm your horses, guys. We can't do that." Britt said.

"We'd be outnumbered and swarmed ASAP." Brady said, his forehead leaning on a bunk. He didn't sound happy about it. Cate could tell that the Centurions had already thought about this long and hard.

"The Fourth cohort has sworn loyalty on the earth to Joan when she was made Centurion; just like you guys did to your centurions. Remember? You can't break an oath on the earth." Gwen said.

"I thought that was the Styx," someone said.

"Nuh-uh. This is a whole new brand of 'can't break that oath'. People have lived after breaking oaths on the Styx. The earth? The earth doesn't even allow it." Dakota said. "And the first cohort is loyal to Octavian. Since Octavian is now dead, they owe their loyalty to Joan since she is praetor. From what I hear, the second cohort's Centurion has sworn loyalty to Joan. Even if they wanted to rebel they couldn't. Joan's locked all her pieces in real good."

"That's why she hates us," Cate realised. "Because we're the wild cards. We _could _do this, we _could _do that."

"Exactly," Brady said. "That's why she did this to you. She's afraid that you'll provoke a rebellion since you're already rebellious by nature."

Cate chewed on her lip. She'd been told that before. The man who'd signed her letters of recommendation was a legacy of Apollo. The wolves had given her the message that she'd need a sponsor of some sort, and she knew that this café owner living a few blocks away from her was a demigod too. He'd taken a good look at her and said (Cate remembered the exact words because one did not forget anything that happened the day giant wolves came to get you): _You're spirited. Destined for something important. You're destined to make the tides turn and to make the obedient rebellious. I'll sign your letters. This could be interesting indeed._

"What am I? A sign of hope?" She said to try and shake it off. "A Mockingjay?

"I'm not saying Joan makes sense, I'm just saying." Brady said. Her face really hurt. Her chest hurt. Her legs hurt. Everything hurt. She was going to look _great _tomorrow. One big walking and armed bruise.

"You said that the cohort was kicked out of activities. Why?" Cate asked to have some distraction.

"Oh, we realised that you'd need more than Gwen's care. Well, Gwen realised that you would. Brady and Dakota were carrying you down to New Rome, but Joan said that you'd heal up. Gwen came in with her nursing degree or whatever her qualifications are and she said 'nuh-uh', and Joan went all 'well, seeing as you're not kissing my sandals, medical treatment is now a privilege'." Britt explained.

"Yeah and then Colin lost it- OWE!" Someone who'd been shut up said.

"Yeah, Colin lost it," Britt said. "And that made other people freak out. Then the fifth cohort got around and man, it was hell. They had to use the Fourth _and _First cohorts to pry us back to the barracks and there are guards making sure nobody out of the fifth and third cohort is out on the streets unless we're traveling from one of our barracks to the other."

"Lovely," Cate said. She tried to rub her eyes, but upon contact she realised that that was about as great of an idea as rubbing handfuls of salt on an open cut, since that's about what it felt like.

"Okay guys, she'll be okay," Gwen said. "There's nothing more I can do. Past that, her face will have to heal on its own." She went on to give Brady medical instructions on how he should give her a spoonful of this magic serum that Gwen could make from the weeds growing in the fort and stored in the _aurae's _kitchen (See? They hated Joan too. You were screwed once even the _aurae _started hating you) every hour, keep her hydrated, and call her if there was anything wrong.

Dakota and Gwen rallied their people (Cate then realised how crowded the barrack was, but holly Styx, if there would have been a fire, they'd have been screwed) and left.

The Third cohort entertained itself.

Kathryn and Daphne sat down on her bunk and they played the Roman version of Monopoly Flash (Cate won by collecting Carthage, Greece and Gaul).

Further away there appeared to be a group of people playing Hop Frog using the bunks for relief, and a massive game of truth or dare that Cate desperately wanted to join.

Cate completely collapsed during the second game Rome-opoly Flash and she just curled up under her blanket and had the Centurions fuss about her again.

"We should get under house arrest more often, this is great." Someone said.

At supper everyone ran out and someone came back with a steamy plate of Pad Thai and a glass of pulpy orange juice for her. Later someone showed up with a full pie (which she did not eat on the grounds that a) eating was hurt and b) Josh showed up and ate the pie with her and ate half and c) she wasn't hungry much).

She still felt like crud and eating hurt like heck. The inside of her mouth seemed to be ripped up too. Maybe she'd bitten herself.

She just didn't want her fellow legionnaires to know. They were being nice to her already, she didn't want to turn into a full-out pity case. She just wasn't hungry, had no energy, wasn't in the mood to do anything, she was in pain, and she was upset because someone she'd wanted to visit her hadn't.

She fell asleep early.

* * *

><p>Annabeth<p>

The troops were separated: half of them were struggling to put out the fires raging on their settlements with buckets of sea water and thick blankets drenched in water so that they wouldn't lose everything, and the other half were meeting the Trojan attack.

She saw men rushing to form a phalanx and so she joined in, acting like one of their own, and locked shields with the man next to her. The general –a man with long black hair and a hefty beard and chest- ordered them forwards and Annabeth marched with the phalanx. Thank gods for all the Camp Half-Blood training.

The phalanx before them scattered the Trojan phalanx whose shields –Annabeth could see from this far- were weak. They started hacking and cutting off the long spears wielded by the Greek men.

"Break the ranks and take the scavenged Trojans!" He ordered. The way they moved was like one synchronised machine. Annabeth could tell that they'd been fighting together under the same generals for a long time now. They fought like Jason and Reyna would, or… or she and Percy in better days.

The war must be about ten years in, then.

She kicked sand and dirty and tufts of grass that'd broken off in the air as she charged, wielding her sword. The weight in her hand was more than she was used to, but her knife would attract attention that she didn't need- for staying hidden, and for keeping the Greeks focused on the enemy.

The archers perched on the top of Troy's walls were sending volleys of arrows at them. Around her, men fell.

She couldn't pull off a Mulan; eventually she'd be kicked out of the battlefield and/or trialed for forgery or accused of being a Trojan spy or any other possible reason. But until then it felt _good. _Fighting on the Argo II wasn't like this, there wasn't the room or the organisation or the organised and strong opponent and the superpowers kept flying all the time. Heck, fighting at Camp Half-Blood never felt like this. There were never as many people.

She sliced through a man's throat. She told herself that this was in the past, and one way or another: that Trojan was going to die as soon as the horse came through the city, or he'd be killed by someone else on the battlefield. She was a soldier right now, doing a soldier's job.

She turned around just in time to counter a strike that would've gotten her on the unprotected part of her neck. She swept the Trojan's legs' out from under him and that was that. She raised her eyes and saw Tommy, and she headed the other way after a silent agreement went through their eyes. She wouldn't fight either he or Percy. They would leave Jason and herself alone.

The fighting felt a lifetime spent on adrenaline's peak, but finally a new trail of Greek warriors came out of the camps, wearing blue armour and scarcely plumed helmets, making noise while they ran and chanting a name. 'Achilles, Achilles, Achilles'… These must be the Myrmidons; Achilles' men. Fifty ships of fifty Myrmidons had been in Troy initially, and they had about two fifths of their numbers now.

The soldiers had controlled the fires and they were joining too- a number bigger than what the Trojans had been expecting. Annabeth guessed that the fire was blessed or enhanced in some way, for it had burned for too long.

It felt weird not being one of the leaders. She'd always been a leader on a battlefield for as long as she had been able to fight well. She wanted to tell one of the generals on horseback that if they had any Greek fire things would work out a lot better.

Eventually the Trojan generals yelled something and the soldiers retreated.

"Nick those you can!" A big man with brown braids in his hair yelled. Armour shuffled as a few soldiers ran out. Annabeth caught herself, and stayed with the bigger group where camouflage was easier. "That's right! Go home, Trojans, go home! And tell your prince that next time; he can be a man and lead his coward troops himself!"

Judging by the grudge against Paris: he must be Menelaus, king of the Spartans; the one whose wife had been kidnapped.

The other soldiers watched as a few Trojans were taken down and the rest made it through the giant gates of the fortress, back to safety.

"Break," one said. "Join your generals. The Myrmidons will guard the lines."

Crud. Annabeth was screwed. Where did she go now? This time of leisure would count taking off her helmet and armour and doing whatever social activity the soldiers did. There was no way she could hide the fact that she was a girl then. Plus, who was her general?

She'd concentrate herself to the one with the biggest army. There was safety in numbers. And from what her memory said that would be… Menelaus, king of Sparta, of course his army would be enormous…

There was a hand on her shoulder.

"You, good sir, saved my life."

Annabeth turned around and saw one of the men in armour she'd assumed was just another soldier. His helmet under his arm, chewing some sort of grass, he had the royal airs of someone born and raised and living in a monarchy, the way he held himself.

"That Trojan had me pinned. You tripped him and he landed where I could stab him through the heart," he said as if to remind her. "You have the thanks of King Agamemnon."

Annabeth's heart froze in her chest.

Brother of Menelaus, he'd eventually bring home Cassandra the seer and princess of Troy as a prize, and get killed in the bathtub by his wife- which would spawn a legacy of revenge and cruelty in his family. The information was fed to her conscience, as if she'd opened a history book on it.

She didn't speak because a) she didn't know what to say and b) she had a girl's voice and she had no way of faking a male voice, she'd tried before. Let's just say that that Cyclopes hadn't bought it much, and they were easier to fool then a king. Well, she supposed it depended on the king.

"Would you come to the General's feast tonight, soldier? Tell me, who your king is. Let me see your face."

Strike one, two and three.

Annabeth panicked. She could not refuse a king without getting in serious trouble. She needed to play a card that would, to these men from an era where women stayed home, would justify her being a soldier and a woman at once.

Oh. It was still risky…

She spotted Jason in the far back of a group of soldiers who'd stopped to stare- particularly Agamemnon's soldiers. At least he was far.

She pulled off her helmet and pulled the elastic from her hair, letting her curls fall down her back sway in the wind.

"I am Annabeth, demigod, and champion of Athena." She said as loudly and proudly as she could.

* * *

><p>Hazel<p>

Hazel shook the man's shoulders.

"Excuse me? Excuse me, sir, can you breathe, can you hear me?" She tapped the ground around his ears. Nothing. Hazel held her hair up and put her ear to his mouth. She didn't hear any breathing, nor did she see his chest rise and fall. Her heart beat faster. He was dead, he was dead, he was dead… oh gods, she couldn't be found with a dead person in Ancient Troy!

Thinking that out loud should've been the last straw, but she pushed her father's realm away. No. She was not going to fail this man. He might still be alive.

She shook him some more. Nobody had ever taught her CPR. _She _was usually the one needing CPR, for heaven's sake!

She shook him some more.

"Please Pluto, please, no…" she muttered under her breath.

The man shot up and Hazel flew back with a start. He rubbed his eyes and head and pulled himself towards a wooden pillar, and got himself up. Hazel tentatively got up too, examining him. He had a kind face, but he was definitely old. His eyes were a pure blue colour and he was skinny, with bones as fragile as a bird's.

"Sir…" Hazel asked, getting up herself. "Are you okay?"

He turned around to face her.

"What are you talking about, stable girl?"

She realised that he was probably nobility. An aristocrat of some sort.

"Well, sir, I came in and you were on the floor." Hazel said shyly. "Unconscient and… and not breathing."

He made a clucking sound with his tongue. "It's happened again," he said.

"What's happened again, sir?" Hazel asked after a moment of silence. She didn't understand, did he have some seizure disorder? He didn't sound surprised, just tired.

"I am an old man," he said. "Death tries to catch me every day. The fates refuse to snip my string correctly; I am simply sick. A sick and tired old man, who's seen enough summers and too many winters and more than enough war."

Hazel didn't say anything.

"Kings go out in glory, but alas I will die inside these walls." He said. Hazel froze. Kings? He was a king? Holly smokes, who was the king of Troy? Who? She couldn't even remember where Troy was on a map of the ancient world. Where was Quinn when Hazel needed her?

"I have seizures. Horrible seizures that take me out of this world and into a comatose state. Sometimes I thrash. Sometimes I lay there dead. Sometimes I cuss like a sailor. A Greek sailor," The old man smiled as if he and Hazel shared a joke. She supposed that the Trojans didn't like Greeks, and he was trying to reach out to her. He seemed kind.

"You do not seem horrified by such an affliction." The king said.

Hazel shook her head. "No sir. I've seen something much like it before."

_The black-outs… No- don't think it._

"Strange," the king said. "I've never heard of it before. Nor have I of you, young lady. Who might you be?"

"Hazel," she said.

"I see. And whose daughter?"

_Styx, ancient Greek names, umm… _"Marie." She ended up saying.

"Marie?" He asked.

"It's foreign."

"I see. And this disease you speak of; is it foreign as well?"

"Yes sir. Very rare. I only know one person who has it." Hazel said.

"A friend?"

"Yes, a friend." Hazel said although she hadn't felt very friendly towards her body in, say, ever.

"And what name does it bear? Do excuse me, but I am looking for a cure. Something to help the pain. The alternative is a tasty but fatal poison waiting in my chamber."

Hazel shivered, but she kept her brain running. She was a good liar. "It is called _mortis, _and I'm afraid that the remedy doesn't advance you much. The only cure is death."

"Ah. A tragic illness your friend has."

"Yes sir."

"This illness, how does it manifest itself?" The king asked. Hazel was uncomfortable, answering his question would trigger it for sure.

"Do excuse me My Lord, but I must… work." She said.

"You seem clever enough to do two things at once." He said. Hazel nodded.

She'd do exactly what she and Sammy always did, she decided; she'd take the horses out of the stables and into the enclosures, change the straw on the ground, change the water (she found a small fountain, which was actually more like a water spout shaped like a horse's head spitting water into a ceramic basin), change the food in the buckets hanging on the door of each horse, rub them down with draw, and _then _bring him back inside his pen…

She was scared when she took the first horse out, but they seemed docile enough, and they liked her just as much as Arion. Oh, she missed her stallion…

They walked easily and were glad to roam in the big enclosure, which was overshadowed by a glorious palace and the shining sun. She coughed, which startled them, but they were very calm beasts. Horses were amazing.

As she walked back into the now empty stall, the king asked his question again.

"Seizures," Hazel said, taking a big rake. She got started on the hay carpet extending over the ground.

"That's it?"

"No. There is also weakness, constant pain in the limbs and chest, headaches, fatigue, being too weak to wake up sometimes. Trouble with sleeping and eating, nausea when one gets upset, stress, faintness, fear, being cold all the time, coughing and other breathing troubles, spiralling emotions, a ghastly appearance, pale skin, sunk in eyes, loss of faith." Hazel said.

Tears nearly prickled in her eyes.

"That is horrible." The king said.

"I couldn't agree more." Hazel said.

"How much time does your friend have?"

Hazel coughed. "Well, nobody can tell her, but she thinks very little."

"How so?"

"Feel it in my bones," Hazel said. "Err, so she says."

"Dreadful," the king said. "Has she borne children? Married? Had a good life?"

"No, no, and not really, sir." Hazel said.

"More dreadful," he said. "Has she ever loved?"

"Yes she has." Hazel said. "Very much so."

"Well then there is that to rejoice about." The king said. Hazel nodded. "I have lived a long life, at least. I have done great things, some may say. I have had children, so matter how childish they remain."

_You have lived in the palace I saw outside with servants like the one you think I am tending to you._ Hazel though, _You have most likely never known suffering until now. How do you know what to rejoice about?_

"But one always wants to do more."

"She just wants to," Hazel coughed, "Finish what she was born to do in this life."

"Ah. She has a mission? She's lucky she can see it. Some of us still wonder…" The king shook his head. "No, an old man's unease and indecision does not matter to you. I think death is the next great adventure."

"Death is not an adventure. It consists of standing still in Hades' field and thinking and thinking until you are like a caged animal in your own head." Hazel said sharply.

"Ah, how do we know? How do we know? Right now is certain, the past is unreadable, the future is a mystery. Death is the biggest enigma of all." He said. Hazel envied him. She really did. He was rich in his lavish life. He would have a lavish and royal afterlife seeing as the war wasn't his doing. He was curious to see what he'd find.

Hazel would die. She'd go back to standing in that endless field forever –that thought nearly brought her to tears- and she knew it. No element of surprise. Nothing to look forwards to. Just…death, once more. She'd die.

"You are correct," Hazel said.

"You don't sound convinced."

"The gods have told us what awaits in the underworld," Hazel said. "It isn't a mystery. The good go to Elysium, the bad in the Fields of Punishment, and the unremarkable in Asphodel."

"True. But so many poets have painted those places, I'm excited to see which one is right." The king said. He seemed so… relaxed and casual. So _okay _while talking about the subject that made most people shiver and turn white as sheets and shuffle their feet. He knew he was dying and he'd come to term with that fact- like people came to term with disease or break-ups.

Why couldn't she? They were in the same boat, she and this king. He was just in first class, and she in third.

"How does he live with it?"

"She," Hazel said without thinking.

"She," the king corrected. Hazel shifted her weight.

"She falls, is thought of as dead, and gets back up until she falls again." Hazel said.

"A beautiful example of perseverance and strength."

Hazel blushed.

"I am afraid never to be able to do such a thing."

"But sir, you got up." Hazel said.

"And so I did," the old king smiled. The lines at the corners of his eyes crinkled. "And so I did…"

* * *

><p>Annabeth<p>

"Seize her," A heavily armed man wearing gold circlets on his biceps and wrists and a toga trimmed with gold said; the one she's seen earlier. He had an imposing build and tiny braids in his hair.

"No." Another man said, as the guards came forwards and Annabeth dropped her helmet to wield her sword with both hands. The men froze and turned to see who had spoken. A man with shaggy brown hair with a beard and pale blue eyes that were as sharp and clever as a fox's. He wore no riches or special armour, but Annabeth could tell her was the king of somewhere, and she was pretty sure she knew where.

"I will vouch for her," he said. "Menelaus; what a way to repay the soldier who saved your brother's life on the battlefield while you weren't. Shame on you." A shiver ran through the army. Those words had weight.

"She is not a soldier." Menelaus said with a wrinkle of his nose. Annabeth would have punched him but she let her defender do his job.

"Then what is she?" He asked. Nothing happened. "And I daresay she's a very good soldier. Strong, agile, quick, brave, and cleverer than half of you- I can tell. And if you lot won't accept it then it doesn't matter. She is under the protection of the crown of Ithaca. The first man who dares breach it will be the first man killed by one of the kings on his side."

Silence. Not even the other kings argued with this one.

He knelt and picked up Annabeth's helmet.

"Come," he said turning back to Annabeth. She nearly passed out because of who he was. "Follow me. My camp is further away."

They walked down the beach and past the other tents and soldiers.

"Why so isolated?" Annabeth asked.

"It's impossible to think or remember with too much bustle and people around. And those are two things I like to do. Thinking and remembering."

_And you're good at them too._

They reached a smaller camp with grey tents and a lazy fire, about thirty feet down from the other camp. Soldiers there were chatting, washing the blood off each other in the shallow sea, patching up some damage done to the tents, and neglecting to tend to the hearth. Annabeth saw a brown-hooded child doing it instead, but she disappeared as Annabeth and the king approached. Annabeth thought of something her mother had told her once; _a well-trained troop does its duty even without the general's eye on them._

He pushed the flap of a tent. "This is my personal tent. You can take off your armour and keep it there, if you wish. There is a basin of water if you need to use it, and the ration chest can spare some for you. I would like to talk to you when you're done. Look for me around the camp; the men will know not to disturb you."

"Thank you," Annabeth said. She walked inside the tent.

It wasn't much compared to what Annabeth was sure the other generals had. A simple cot on the ground, a map of Troy with wooden figurines to represent troops (painted colours to represent the nations), tents, archers, individual heroes, catapults… It made her think of Malcolm's set of warriors. Well, technically it was hers, but she'd left the Athena cabin and so it fell to her lieutenant.

There were two chests- one must be clothes, and one must be the camp's rations. Annabeth guessed the one with a lock had the food inside of it. At least _she'd_ have put a lock on the trunk containing rations if she were the one leading an army exclusively of men. There was a letter with a purple flower dried up on the bed, but Annabeth didn't even wish to read it. She had a faint idea who it was.

She knelt in front of the food chest and examined the lock. She didn't have any bobby pins in her hair –the change of clothes had included those as well- but she knew the key would be in here, somewhere so that if he perished in battle it wouldn't be lost. The king would have let his second in command know where it was so that if he died they wouldn't have to break the chest to get into the food. Or… she guessed.

She looked around. Where would she have hidden it? She had a feeling that the king would have done the same. They'd both been trained to think the same way since childhood.

_I would have hidden it in plain sight. Somewhere accessible to me- and he's not the tallest man, so it should be at my eye level… _

She knelt in front of the chest and examined the bronze caps on all its corners. She shook the chest and saw that one of the caps was wobbly and not exactly melted onto the wood. She slipped her pinky finger into the space between the cap and the chest and felt something cold to the touch. Metal! She managed to take her sword and push the key back up with the blade's tip. The key was small and bronze, same as the lock.

She unlocked the chest and helped herself to a little bit of dried meat. She wasn't that hungry because of last night's tacos, but she wouldn't pass on food because she had the distinct feeling that she'd need the energy.

She locked the chest and hid the key exactly where she'd found it.

She took off the bigger pieces of her armour and washed a cut on her cheek before going back outside. She decided to leave her hair down- it made an impact and shocked the soldiers, and if she could play that aspect to guarantee her safety, then she would. She was thankful for the tunic under the Greek armour; she didn't want to walk around in armour all the time- although she kept her sword, grieves and gauntlets. She hadn't worn those in a long time- those pieces of her own armour were in Tartarus right now.

She emerged from the tent but didn't see the king anywhere. The soldiers starred at her and she nodded her head in salute. They raised a hand hello.

"You staying around here?" One asked.

"I don't know," Annabeth said.

"Just make the extra food, Nikon, I'll eat it if she won't." A soldier yelled out. Annabeth laughed with the soldiers.

Odysseus appeared, carrying one end of a stick on which a whole wild boar was threaded. He had a bow and arrow across his shoulder. The men cheered when they saw the pig.

"Never mind that food, Nikon, make that." The same soldier as earlier said.

"Half of it goes to the Myrmidons." Odysseus said. The men booed at that.

"There are only twenty-nine of us- thirty now. There will be plenty, this pig is big. I count to help Achilles' troops stay. And now they're on guard; they missed the best time to hunt."

"As you wish, my Lord." The cook –Nikon- said.

"You," the king said looking at Annabeth. "Walk with me."

Annabeth crossed the camp and he waited for her, before walking off.

They were considerably far from the camp when he spoke.

"It is not often that Athena sends her daughters my way." He said.

"You know of children of Athena?" She asked. They'd always been of little –or no- knowledge in the ancient world because Athena was a sworn maiden.

"Of course. I know more about Athena than most men."

"You say that fearlessly about a goddess."

"The truth is fearless." The king said.

"How did you even know I was a demigod?"

"There aren't a myriad of places where a girl can learn to fight in this world," he said. "I believe that your camp is the only one."

"As far as I know, you are correct." She said. _Mostly because Rome doesn't exist yet. _

"And how I know you are a daughter of Athena? I heard you unlock the chest. Men have never found the key before, and they like to try. Not out of greed, it's a game to them."

"Maybe I'm just clever." Annabeth said.

"Maybe your grey eyes are a coincidence as well," he said with a smile. "My name is Odysseus," he said. "King of Ithaca."

"Annabeth," she said; her heart pounding.

"A foreign name."

"More than you imagine so." Annabeth said.

"Actually, you'll be surprised that I think that you are from elsewhere than Athens."

"You are right," Annabeth said. "But I'm not surprised."

"It seems I have forged myself a reputation." Odysseus said.

"Not a bad one."

"Hmm. That depends on how you see it. If I had not forged myself a reputation, I wouldn't have been sought out of Ithaca on the alliance's grounds to fight this frivolous war." Odysseus said.

"You would be with your family," Annabeth said.

Odysseus nodded. "If I would have been wiser ten years ago, I would have hidden it."

"The war needs you as one of the generals," Annabeth said.

"The war doesn't need to exist." Odysseus said. "It is a fight between Menelaus and Paris, a fight that has been provided with armies and weapons and was blown out of proportions. If you would strip all that away, you would have a squabble about a beautiful woman- who would have hidden her beauty ten years ago if she too would have been wiser."

Annabeth nodded. She liked hearing him talk- it reminded her much of her own father, or her older brothers. Calculated, true, honest, intelligent comments… No wonder Athena had accorded him her protection.

"Tell me, how did you come here?"

Oh man… Annabeth didn't doubt that Odysseus would believe her. His faith in Athena and the curiosity he'd taken towards Annabeth would secure that. But did she want to tell him where she was from? Did she want to tell him he was fighting the war for a second time, resurrected into the twenty first century?

"I came with friends. We are on a quest- for the demigod camp you earlier mentioned. We approached the shore out of curiosity, but by the time we recognised the war and wished to pull back, it was too late and we were drawn here. By Gaia."

"Gaia?" His face darkened. "I see. How many of your friends are there?"

"There are ten of us."

"Ten?"

"Four of us concealed with the troops. The other six were stripped of their armour and most of their weaponry by the gods. They went to seek refuge inside the city for further investigation." Annabeth said.

"And you are here, daughter of Athena. It seems unwise not to have _you _been the one stripped of your armour."

"The gods are funny things." Annabeth said. Odysseus laughed.

"Only a demigod can speak those words without being incinerated." He said.

_Mostly because the queen of the heavens herself owes me big time,_ she thought.

* * *

><p>Piper<p>

"Look, this is a misunderstanding." Piper said. "I'm not Helen."

"Do not play these games with me; I am not in the mood." Paris said, taking her arm and dragging her away. Piper smashed her foot on his and he let go in shock with a noise of pain.

"Well I'm not in the mood to be dragged around this place as if I'm cattle, do I make myself clear?" Piper said automatically.

Paris gaped at her.

"The servants will come find you; I have important matters to deal with." Paris said, which made Piper feel super good. _Great, I'm a matter?_ _You sure are a charmer._

"The war?"

"Of course the war, why do you even ask?" He snapped, annoyed. Piper put a hand on her hip. He was a jerk, and she'd only known him for ten seconds.

Before Piper could tell him so, he stomped off.

Okay, now she had to get out of here. She didn't know what the life of Helen of Troy was like, and she didn't want to find out. She wondered if anybody else was around the palace.

Her hand reached to her throat for the ring on Tommy's chain. She calmed down.

Before she could leave or turn invisible, a flock of servants came and crowded around her, yapping in Ancient Greek. Things like 'what happened to your hair?', 'Milady, where have you been?', 'what are you wearing?'

Piper couldn't reply to any of them. They were like birds, they were twittering and their talk was flighty. Piper couldn't chain one of them down to explain everything. She was starting to think that maybe she _couldn't _talk the people in this palace out of their delusion since they wouldn't listen to her. And maybe she shouldn't… She rather be a princess of Troy, and have the power to leave and roam free and watch out for the other crew members, then stay in the prison and be accused of impersonation and forgery and maybe even kidnapping the real Helen.

Speaking of which, where _was _she anyways? It wasn't the kind of person you just lost track of unless she were your Facebook friend. She must have guards, and this tweeting flock of servants, and many more always around her. The whole of Greece knew that she was there. She was the most beautiful person in the world; people were always watching. How had she escaped?

Piper blushed. She was impersonating _that? _Good Zeus, she was screwed. 

The servants brought her up several flights of marble staircases and down a myriad of corridors, through a palace richly decorated. They held great wooden and carved doors open for her and she walked into a richly decorated bed chamber. There was a huge tub dug into the ground in the corner, and a screen nearby.

"Come, Milady." One of the servants said, bringing her towards the bath. Piper caught on.

"No." She said. "No way. Nuh-uh." _Smooth Piper. Very Helen-of-Troy-like. These servants are with her all the time. If someone will catch on to personality changes, it will be them._ "I mean, your assistance is not needed."

The servants all looked at each other.

"As you wish," one said.

Piper didn't even look at the bathtub. It had rose petals floating at the surface- not her style.

But she knew that she had to consent to the clothing. Which included another dress… Why the universe was desperate to see her in one- Piper knew not.

Eventually she figured out how to drape herself in this gossamer piece of fabric, tied over one shoulder with a bronze brooch. She swapped sandals for a pair decorated with blue sapphires, lapis-lazuli and turquoise gems. They laced up higher than the others and it was extremely uncomfortable. She estimated that it took her about thirty minutes to do all this. Never before had she wanted her sisters there as badly. Heck, she'd take a brother because she was sure that even they weren't as clueless. This, of course, made her worry about Mitchell again, while her mind was on the subject of her siblings…

Eventually she walked back into the view of the servants.

"All is well, Milady?" One asked.

"Yes, very." Piper said. Should she call the servants 'dear' or something? Was that a Helen-of-Troy-ish thing?

They sat her down in front of a plain mirror and started hacking at her hair with combs, raking the beaded braids out of it with their fingers. Piper sat quietly and listened to their chatter.

Her hair was done into a beautiful and intricate braid that left her bangs dangling over her eyes.

"It's gorgeous," Piper said.

"Thank you Milady," the young servant who'd done the braids said.

"Remind me of your name?" Piper said.

"Elissa, Milady."

"That's beautiful as well."

"Thank you." She blushed. She couldn't be more than fourteen; Quinn, Hazel and Josie's ages.

Piper got up and looked around the room. "Where do I go next?" She asked, lost. She knew a bit about ancient Greek lifestyles from the research she and her dad had done, but nothing was exact.

"To the throne room, Milady. The family is waiting for you there."

_Family: right. I've been here for about ten years and I'm married- which gives me a husband, a brother and a sister in law, a father in law and a kingdom right now. Styx, I'm going to mess this up._

* * *

><p><strong><em>ANNONS!<em>**

Guest/Someone: It's spelled both ways and I was always tuaght 'Gaia' when I learned the Greek myths. I tried writing it 'Gaea' but I just couldn't do it and I always switched and... yeah, it's complicated.

Guest- Only on Fridays and sometimes Tuesday/Wednesday and on special occasions.

Guest (Jason getting hurt, etc)- OKAY!

Guest- I've writen some of the Kanes, but nothing big.

Guest- Uploadathons are very hard on me!

Guest- Can't, you guys can read faster than I can write.

Mari3010- Yeah, I guess... Too late now!


	81. LIII Cate

XXXXXIII

Cate

Her meds had worn off and Cate's whole body was in pain. Her hips felt like the organs had grown and had pushed through her ribcage and were now trying to push through her skin while playing twister. If that made any sense… Her head was dizzy too.

Throbbing pain went through her face like different pulses. Every other part of her felt tight, and like one big bruise…

Cate turned onto her side, but that made her cringe and fall on her back. She twisted under her covers to try and find a way to scrunch herself into a less painful position. No way had that beating been purely fists, man. Cate had dealt with that before, and it did not suck this much.

She looked through the window and then at the stars. Then someone appeared, a face she hadn't thought she'd wanted to see anymore, ever again. Brown hair across his bright blue and sneaky eyes, upturned eyebrows; elfish features. He looked at her for a while, which was great because Cate wanted an excuse to look at him. He was wearing a brown hoody.

He breathed on the window until it fogged up.

I FEEL GILTY he wrote.

Cate cocked her head. He erased with his sleeve and he fogged up the window again.

IF U WEREN'T MAD ME U WOULDN'T HAVE GONE ALONE

Cate shook her head. Was that what he thought? That wasn't true; Joan would've gotten her anyways. Squinting to see through the dark better, she saw how worried the scrunching of his eyebrows and lines in his forehead and the guilt in his eyes made him look. No, that wasn't true! She felt bad for making him so guilty. But he looked _really _cute.

He erased again and wrote;

EVRYTHNG SUCKS WITHOUT U

He erased and rewrote:

IM SO SORRY. I COULDN'T TLEL U. SAFETY.

She didn't like that answer (not because of his dyslexia making him spell oddly, she could cope with that, Jedediah sucked at it), and he probably saw it in her face. He erased.

PUT U IN DAMGER

Cate nodded. She understood. She didn't like it, she'd been ticked off, but she understood now.

MY HOME IN DAMGER. COULDN'T DO THAT 2 THEM.

Besides, how would he have told her? 'Cate, you're a really good kisser, and I love you, and by the way I'm Greek'.

He drew a heart in the fog and little fireworks around it, and Cate nodded.

FORGIVEN?

Cate nodded.

He put his hand to the window and Cate lifted her arm. Her hand shook against the glass pane and she was tiring quickly. It felt like ten years before she dropped her arm. Colin- Connor- whoever this guy was- looked to his left, over his shoulder and hastily wrote;

I'LL KISS U TOMORBOW. GUARDS COMIN. G2G.

Cate blew a kiss at him without using her arms and he smiled, whipped the window clean, and ran back towards the guy's bunker.


	82. LIV Cate, Annabeth, Frank, Leo

**Hey guys! I was at a cottage for the last few days, so I didn't have the wifi or computer to reply to everyone, so it's ALL going in the replies at the bottom of the chapter (except for Lara D). Yeay!**

**Except for this one: someone asked me if I was going to write a chapter about why Joan hates the Greeks.**

**Well, at first I thought of Joan's motivations; like, when I was planning out her character and all that… but in the end, she's just like every other racist person in the world. There isn't a reason. She's just scared of what's different and what she didn't grow up with. And I mean, that's okay to a certain extent; we're all scared of what's new in the world, it's why we go do things and experience with foods that end with 'armadillo' on restaurant menus, and bungee jump, and talk to new people. But when you start hating on people for being people and for being where you're from, and when you get discriminating, rude, insulting, arrogant, mean and downright cruel about it, then it's not cool. That's Joan's reason, and that's why she is where she is.**

**Anyways, enjoy the chapter guys!**

**Disclaimer: me no own. **

* * *

><p>XXXXXIII<p>

Cate

The next morning she was well enough to stand up and get dressed on her own. Well, nearly, the bed frame helped with the standing part.

Her scratches pulled and stung under the touch of her clothes, and it hurt to the touch. She looked at her face in the mirror. It was _so_ bad, brushing her hair would be useless, and so Cate let it be. She wasn't going to take up that battle with physics right now. She was already basically defying gravity with her wobbly legs.

When she walked out of the barracks, she saw Connor waiting for her, wearing his armour, his helmet under his arm. His face lit up and he smiled when he saw her.

He caught her in his arms and held her exactly the right way so that it didn't hurt. She rested his head in the familiar place between his neck and shoulder and he squeezed tightly, as if he was trying to freeze his arms that way. Cate wouldn't mind.

"I missed you so much Cate," he said.

"Me too. I'm sorry." Cate said quietly. "I overreacted, it wasn't…"

"Well it was." Connor said.

"Yes it was, but I still overreacted." Cate said.

Cohort 53 (it was impossible to keep the Fifth cohort's dudes out of the Third's area and vice-versa) clapped all around them, as if they'd just won a game show.

"You guys are retards," Josh said. "Of course you were going to get back together."

Annabeth

"Remind me why _she's _here?" Menelaus said looking at Annabeth resentfully. Annabeth stared him down and he looked away first. _Burn. _

"Because she's clever and wise, and the gods know that that's what we need," Odysseus said.

"You trust her?" Agamenon asked.

"Yes," Odysseus said. "Now what was your plan for tomorrow?"

Nobody spoke up.

"Wonderful, a blank canvas." Odysseus said. Annabeth smiled herself, letting her brain run wild.

He turned to her. "I'll let you share your idea, first."

"You're quite confident that she _has _an idea?" Agamemnon said.

"She is Athena's champion," Odysseus said simply. They'd agreed not to proclaim Annabeth a child of Athena- that would take too much explaining and it sounded way too new to the others. "Annabeth," he said nodding his head as if to say 'talk now; you will face no more interruptions'.

She needed something concrete. These men did not listen to Odysseus, so this was going to be hard. What was undisputable, concrete, evident, simple for them to comprehend..? Something they couldn't argue with her about..?

"How many men did you sail to Troy with?" Annabeth asked. "50, 000, right? Judging by the numbers of ships I saw. How many men have you now?"

"What?" Menelaus snapped.

"How many haven't died yet." Annabeth said. "Think about it. I'd say 5, 400."

The kings thoughts and mumbled out numbers.

"5, 200," Odysseus said with a smile. "You were close."

"Right," Annabeth said. She was slightly in shock of having her childhood (and adolescence) hero there, complimenting her, but she had to deliver her plan. She was a child of Athena, and that was what she did. For better or for worst. "So for how many days have you been fighting?"

"What?"

"For how many days have you been fighting. And if you're going to be so grumpy about it I'll just answer it myself; ten years, which is 365 days (since Annabeth didn't want to count the leap years) multiplied by ten. That's 3650 days. And let's divide the number of the dead, approximately 44 800, by that magic number. It gives us about… 12, 27397260." Annabeth said. "Am I right?"

"Yes," Odysseus said. "For your purpose, I think you should round it up, though."

"Alright then, 12. You've lost about twelve men every day, and that's a gross estimation since there were days of peace and days of bloodshed. Take the number of living soldiers, divide that by 12, you get 433, 333333…" Annabeth said.

"In about 400 days- although I think that you can cut that by two-" (considering most of their great fighters were dead, rations were running low, the Trojans were hopeful, and the troops were tired and desperate) "-so about 200 days, less than a year, all your soldiers will technically be gone according to these numbers. And I'm not even going to do the mathematics about how well the Trojans are doing considering there are less of them to start with. You need to end this as soon as possible, and right now, you don't have to troops to do it with brawn."

"We've tried diplomatic measures already, and now that we're weak it will only be seen as cowardly for us to negotiate." Menelaus said. "Odysseus, please, she doesn't even know what war she's looking at."

He was leaning on the table, not even looking up at Annabeth. As if she wasn't important.

And not only was Annabeth prideful, but she was irritated by her work with Percy, tired of her plans being hushed up, kept quiet and hidden in the shadows, and most of all; tired of looking like the bad guy when all she was doing was her job.

Annabeth drew a knife Odysseus had given her once he'd asked her what his weapon of choice was, took the blade between her fingers and threw it in Menelaus' direction. The king raised his head alarmed, but the blade didn't even touch him, it just ran straight past him and impaled himself in the tent wall.

"I am not Athena's for no reason, and you should do good to remember that, my Lord. I am a girl, but I am a girl who can hurt you in ways you couldn't even imagine; so you better watch yourself and the way you speak of and to me." Annabeth said. They gawked at her. "And now I ripped your tent, so you have to wrap this war up even more quickly."

"I rather like her," Agamemnon said. "She's rather amusing. Odysseus, will you let her return to my court when this is over?"

"She isn't my pet, Agamemnon. Consider her my voice. Since you lot refuse to listen to a plan and my pleas to accept one when they come from me, maybe you'll listen to her." Odysseus said.

Annabeth looked over her shoulder. His arms were crossed on his chest and he looked at her, as if absorbing her words.

What Annabeth was feeling now was how most girls felt when Justin Bieber or Tristan McLean said that they had nice shoes.

"Alright then," one of the heroes who'd been quiet until now, Diomedes, king of Argos, spoke up. "What is your plan?"

Annabeth froze. Nuh-uh. She couldn't actually tell them, 'okay guys, we're going to need a fake note of surrender, hammers, nails and a _lot_ of wood'. That would change history and take the merit away from Odysseus. It'd be like cheating. No; this king was the one who would win the Trojan War for the Greeks.

"I cannot conceive a plan that will win this war. I am not a king. You are. And lest you want your people to speak of their kings as the ones whose wits were surpassed by a girl's, I shan't help you. This isn't my war, or my people. But I will give you advice that has never failed me before.

When you are the smaller one, you need to do what the smaller can. Weapons aren't the only things you can win with. You can only fight what you see, and what is close. An angry or relaxed enemy is rash or lazy.

Listen to Odysseus. He's known this for half of his life if not more."

She observed their faces. Menelaus was very unimpressed. Agamemnon looked as if he wanted to frame Annabeth and hang her on his wall. Ajax was quiet. Diomedes seemed to be mulling that over. So was the Myrmidon standing for Achilles, but he looked at Annabeth in awe, obviously new here.

Odysseus' mouth was half a smile.

"That's it then? You won't help us?" Agamemnon asked. He looked crushed. Menelaus looked insulted.

"I have helped you, I've talked some sense into you lot." She said. "The rest you'll have to do by yourselves. Aren't you Menelaus? Aren't you the King of Sparta? The best dueller in Greece?"

He became red with anger. "I don't need a little girl to tell me my place."

"Well you did five seconds ago, Lord." Annabeth said, inclining her head softly. "My Lord," she told Odysseus. "May I leave?"

"Of course. Watch for the men from the other nations on your way back, they may not be very friendly." He said.

"Of course," Annabeth said. "Lord Menelaus, may I have my knife back?"

The king looked bitter as he ripped the knife from the tent and slid it across the table to Annabeth.

"Thank you. Good evening, my Lords." She said, bowing slightly before walking out of the tent.

So maybe she was being prideful. Maybe she was being arrogant and overconfident.

But Annabeth had been broken and under confident and trapped in her own mind for the last weeks on the ship. She was sick of being small and inferior. Part of her wanted Percy to be there, to see her be… who she was. Not the total hellhound she'd been on the ship. Part of her, no, _most_ of her, wanted him to know that she was still there. She was still Annabeth. And since she was that, she still…

She pushed the ideas from her mind.

She'd done what she'd had to do. Like a daughter of Athena should. Acting foolish on his account wouldn't do a favour to anyone. Not her, and not him.

Story of her life now. She wasn't her, and he wasn't him.

Cate

He was dragging her across camp by the hand.

"Also you need to remember that my brother is going to be there, and you need to know that he's a liar and that he is also out to get me, so don't believe a word or embarrassing baby story that comes out of his mouth. Unless it makes me sound cute." Connor said. He was talking very fast, like whenever he was excited.

"Colin, I'm not so sure if this is a good…"

"No, you will be in this message because I explained things badly and because I don't want to keep another secret from you ever again. This is part of me, and I ain't keeping that from you, _or _breaking my promise." Connor said defensively.

Cate nodded and rested her head on his shoulder. She still got sleepy and tired all the time. He put an arm around her waist and they kept walking.

"Usually I come over here, because nobody ever goes there." Connor said.

"That's because the praetor villas are sacred." Cate said, noticing for the first time where they were going.

"Oh, pish posh, there are no booby traps." Connor said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's fair game."

"As far as you're concerned pie is the answer to everything," Cate said.

"No, that's common sense." Connor said. He picked the lock of Jason's house in about two seconds flat, and pushed open the door, holding it open for her. She felt weirdly excited about doing something like this, but also quite nervous because she was a twitchy and nervous squirrel-like being who was afraid of getting beaten on the streets again.

Most of her cuts were healed, and so was one black eye after a day of Gwen darting into the Third Cohort's activity and saying 'hey Cate, I have this thing that you can try…' or 'you're looking pale, I think you need more ambrosia' or 'I think that if you stand like this it'll help'.

She had an ace bandage on her arm and Brady kept her out of most training exercises (which sadly did not include the Latin verbs, which would have made it somewhat worth it).

"So how does this work?" Cate asked again as he pushed the door open.

"Offer to Iris, she caters to demigods out because she thinks we've got swag, it's really easy. You could do it." Connor explained, turning on the shower head.

"Geez. Thanks." She said.

"I didn't mean it that way," Connor said. "Well, it is kind of hard because rainbows don't just, like, appear all the time. I make 'em with mist and a flashlight usually. In the sauna it's really easy. Gift shop crystals are nice too. Why doesn't this place have a gift shop?"

"Because you didn't build this place. Also the answer to 'why is the Little Tiber not chocolate?'," Cate reminded him.

They'd seriously had this discussion.

"Right. I knew there was a reason this place made me upset."

"Apart from, you know, the bloodthirsty, Greek-hating, heavily armed romans." Cate said.

"And the raging lunatics who beat the heck out of my girlfriend. Yeah, that's a big part of it too." He said, knelt next to the shower and examining the mist, which made Cate smiled a bit (not the kneeling, the saying part). "Give it a few more minutes." He said, leaning against the wall.

She looked at him, sitting on the bathroom counter as he starred at the water pouring from the faucet.

"Connor," she said.

He turned around to look at her, head cocked to the side. "Yeah Katie-Cate-Cat?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just… I've never felt alone with you enough before to actually call you Connor." She said.

"Oh. Well, I've never kissed you in a bathroom either." He said.

Just like that he was standing in front of her, his arms wrapped around her with his hands resting at the small of her back. She kept her hands busy, playing with his brown hair which had curled on this particularly humid day. And of course their lips were busy. Cate just couldn't get enough of kissing him, it was as if the daily quota limit moved up every time she came even close. She just loved being in his arms, loved having him kiss her when they were in random places like _the praetor villa's bathroom, _loved him, loved them.

Cate pulled her face back and leaned her forehead against his. She'd always found herself a million things to hate about the way she looked or the way she was. Her nose, her hair was impossible to comb some days, her eyes were too big for her head, she was scrawny, she was a daughter of Trivia which could nearly translate to 'eviiiiiiil' at times, she was loud, she couldn't help being rude… Connor made her feel like all those things were what supermodels envied.

"I think it's been 'a few more minutes'." She said.

"So? You've got specific times when I can kiss you?"

"I'm talking about your iMessage dummy."

"Oh. IM." Connor said. "Yeah, I guess."

He turned around, to face the shower. The place was misty and hot and the mirror and small window at the top, top of the room were all foggy.

"So, you look at it and go 'O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering'. And then you pull out one of these little suckers," Connor said, pulling a gold coin with a big-eyed owl on one side out of his pocket. "And you toss it in. Me and my bro Chris figured out that if you change the order it doesn't matter. You just really need the 'Iris', 'goddess of rainbow', and 'offering' in there. If not she thinks that you're a) rude, b) ripping her off."

"Fun," Cate said.

"Malcolm Temple, son of Athena, California." Connor said. "That's like, looking through a contact book."

"Ah," Cate said. "Except it includes everyone in the world."

"Yes, yes it does." Connor nodded. "Aren't you the clever one?"

"It's why you love me," Cate said as an image shrugged into view. The same tent she'd seen when she'd eavesdropped on the conversation that had told her who 'Colin' really was.

It was full of people –the counsellors, he'd told her.

"Connor!" Said a guy with poof-like brown hair and grey eyes who looked happy to see Connor, but confused when he saw Cate.

"Run it's a Roman!" Someone yelled.

"We're screwed!"

"No- it's the one who wants to kill him, we're saved!"

"RUN I SAID!"

"Cut it out guys, this is Cate." Connor said. "She's fine. She's actually great. She's actually my girlfriend."

"Dear gods we _are _screwed."

"Cate, hon, have you ever considered that if he didn't _have _a girlfriend over at our place, it probably means that he doesn't _need _one?" A glamorous looking girl with dirt on her cheeks and a tired expression said.

"Yes he does, that's crazy talk." Cate said.

Some guy with a rainbow tattoo laughed as the girl smiled.

"Why you laughing Butch? You're five times my age and you don't have a girlfriend. Leave Cate alone. What's going on in the world?" Connor asked.

"Miracles, apparently." A guy that Cate guessed was Connor's brother Travis said. He looked at Cate. "Has he told you about the schizophrenia yet?"

"Shut up Travis, you don't see me mutilating your relationship with Katie."

"I don't have a relationship with your brother." A very gentle looking girl (must be Katie) said.

"You wish." Said brother replied.

Katie sprinted to the other side of the tent, and then out of it once Travis ran out after swearing really loudly. So much for 'soft looking'.

"Well there they go," Malcolm said. He turned back to the vision. "Well, as you can see, everyone got here from camp a few hours ago. Drew took one for the team and fended off a monster."

"It spat acid, thank you very much." Drew said. Cate noticed that spots in her hair looked like a hot glue gun had gone crazy on it.

"Right, it spat acid." Malcolm corrected himself. "We think we've finalised our attack plan, we're just waiting for an inventory of weaponry. If we don't have as much as I hope then this plan might fail- specifically in the archery department."

"Rome's got a truck full of them. We got them, like, two months ago, when the quest from Alaska came back." Cate said.

"Most of the Greeks hate imperial gold. Jason's was very unpopular, at least." Malcolm said. "But this is interesting to talk to someone who knows the camp more than Connor does. Tell me, are the defences here..?"

Cate had to answer questions from Malcolm (Connor whispered the name in the ear along with the caption 'Child of Athena. Just be patient with him. We all are.') for a while. He made her think of Quinn so much, constructing these great plans in his head bit by bit and showing the world a thought-out, backed-up strategy or project when he was done… She missed Quinn.

"So Cate," Katie (who had come back; Travis had too a minute or two later with grass in his hair) said. "Who are you a child of?"

"Trivia," she said. "The… magic goddess?"

"Oh, Hecate." Five people said.

"Woo- sister!" A girl yelled out. She had almond shaped eyes and a wide smile with thin lips. Cate grinned and waved, blue sparks shooting from her fingers. She didn't meet siblings very often.

"Sweet baby Zeus- don't light me on fire, woman." Connor said ducking. Cate's index burst into flames like a match and she taunted Connor with it.

"I swear- if you get us ratted out because we set this place on fire-"

"Relax, just tell whoever's in charge of that popsicle stand that you were making out." Travis said.

"Yeah, and that-"

"Enough of that," Drew said firmly, picking the dried acid out of her hair bit by bit and flicking it onto a pile she was building up. "Where are you from, Cate?"

"Arizona," she said. "Phoenix. I'm first generation American."

She always seemed to have to say that, or people just thought 'oh, immigrant'. People were stupid.

"That's cool," Drew said. "Ditto here. Well, my dad's from Japan."

"Sick. Do you speak Japanese?"

She let out a string of vowels and 'k' sounds that sounded really beautiful to Cate. People starred at Drew.

"What? That's right. I'm educated." Drew said, before resuming the picking of her hair.

"I speak Arabic," Cate said.

"I swear; she's cussing at me sometimes, and I don't know it." Connor said.

"Why would I swear at you?"

"Stealing your Froot-Loops this morning. Messing up your hair, always. Putting salt in your orange juice while you were gone to see Britt last week. Paying Josh to help me throw you in the Little Tiber. Hiding the corpse of that squirrel under your pillow."

"Point proven," Cate nodded, remembering each event.

"And you put up with this?" Someone asked.

"He's a _really_ good kisser." Cate said. The tent burst into laughter and Cate grinned at Connor. She mouthed 'not serious, I love you'. He nodded and took her hand.

"So… you're cool with the whole Greek thing? We don't need to worry about you warning the praetor?"

"I'm Joan's biggest problem right now," Cate said. "Why did you think she sent assassins after me?" She asked, pointing to her face.

"_Assassins?_ _" _Somebody asked.

"I thought that we'd agreed that they were ninjas." Connor said.

"No way, if I'd been attacked by ninjas, I would be _dead._" Cate said.

"Cate kind of got testy with Joan," Connor explained. "Like, swear-at-her testy. And then she got fished out of a major punishment by our Centurion because it was provoked by the jerks of Cohort number two who are about as educated as my butt, and so Joan got mad and she sent the ninjas-"

"Assassins," Cate said.

"We will settle that later-" he told her, "And Cate got beat up. Badly."

Everyone in that tent either winced or let their jaw drop.

"Just like that?" Drew asked. "Nothing democratic, she can just, like, _do _that?"

"Democracy's a Greek thing." Cate said. "The only thing close to that is when we raise our praetors on the shields to name them. After that they pretty much have supreme power over New Rome, the fort, they can even veto the senate."

"Well, what's a stupid idea." Travis said.

"What about Lupa?" Nyssa asked.

"Lupa? She's not our mother; she lets us do what we want after she trains us. We're in our own hands; on our own over in Rome. Even our parents barely communicate." Cate said.

"Isn't there a reserve that can remove the praetors from their power? The Praetorian guard, or something?" Some guy who'd evidently hit the history books said.

"In the ancient times, they used to slay the emperors who did too badly of a job," Cate said nervously, going from foot to foot. "But it was abolished in the year 2000, I think. Jason and Reyna never got around to putting it back. Maybe they didn't want to bring it back, I don't know."

"Smooth idea that was," the guy called Butch mumbled.

See? This is why Reyna contacted you. There are people in the fort that will help you, but we need help." Cate said. "There aren't enough of us. Joan's been kicking some of our people out, or forcing them into retirement too. It's only a matter of time before our Centurions go too. Especially Brady. She's not happy with Brady since he saved me. Well, since a long time actually."

"What about the veterans in New Rome?" Malcolm asked. "Some of them have got to hate what's happening."

"They don't know what's happening; we've been locked inside the Fort since Reyna was captured. We have no access to anybody there. She's not stupid, Joan. She's not brilliant, but she's not just some dope who killed the right guy at the right time."

"What's her back story? Why did she do this?" Malcolm asked, leaning on the table, eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't know. She's not my Centurion."

That answer didn't please them. What they didn't get was that Rome worked in order. You talked to some people, you didn't talk to some. You knew some things, you didn't know others. It was just how things worked.

"But she was my friend Quinn's-"

"The one on the Argo II?" Malcolm asked.

"Yes. I know that Joan's from Alabama, and that she grew up medium class until the wolves found her. Daughter of Mars, naturally violent, what can I say?"

"Anything else?" Nyssa said, putting an arm on Malcolm's back. He looked strained, as if he'd never led an operation like this before.

"She once told me that she thought that Joan liked Octavian. She wasn't sure, and saying it made her blush like Pluto, but it might be that. I know a daughter of Venus who said that Octavian obviously liked Reyna, at some point."

"It's about love, then." Drew said.

"It's always about love; have you not read our mythology?" Nyssa said.

"That's just what I heard flying around," Cate said, hands up.

"Well I'm certainly glad that Connor found you, Cate." Malcolm said.

"So am I," Connor said low enough so that his friends wouldn't hear.

"Honestly, we'd never have been able to know so much." Malcolm said. "Connor, I think you should tell her about the plan."

"The plan?" Connor said.

"Yes. The plan." Malcolm said.

Connor's eyes were big and he took a deep breath.

"I don't need to know if you don't want to-" Cate said. She didn't want things to get screwed up again.

"No, it's not that," Connor said. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't get hurt. I'm not five years old."

"I know but as a track record, five-year-olds scrape their knees and fall off swings. Fifteen year old demigods get beaten half to death, killed by monsters, killed by the power ladder of Rome and otherwise maimed and killed." Connor said.

Cate shoved him with her shoulder. "I'll be fine. This plan of yours is more important."

Frank

"So…" Frank asked the woman he was following, Ocypete. "What exactly am I supposed to… do?"

Ocypete sighed. "Are you new here?"

"Yes," Frank said. "Like, I've never done this before."

"Princess Andromache is in mourning," Ocypete said. "The whole of Troy is, of course." She added quickly. "But the loss of her husband has shaken her incredibly. All that she can seem to do that has some kind of effect is her son, Astyanax."

"Oh. That's unfortunate." Frank said. "But what am I supposed to do?"

"Talk to her. You're below her. Perhaps she will be more comfortable talking to you than to her sisters in law."

Frank seriously doubted it. He was the guy who'd gotten a girl to talk his best mortal friend through heartbreak last October. He didn't do well with emotions and making people better and all that. Heck; his own emotions were confusing enough.

"I doubt it."

"There is nothing else to do and King Priam is desperate." Ocypete said. Before Frank could object some more, she knocked on a door.

"Milady, it is I." Ocypete said.

"If this is about Helen again…" A voice said.

"No, Milady, she was found in the basement, it is no longer a problem." Ocypete said. Frank wondered what the problem had been. "I have brought someone to talk to you."

"I do not need a healer."

"He is not a healer."

"Nor a shaman."

"He is not a shaman." Ocypete said patiently. "Please, Milady? It would do good to calm the King's nerves. He is worried about you; and heartbroken himself."

The door unlocked and opened. The woman had extremely long dark brown curls, they went to her waist. She had a soft face and dark eyes. She looked very small in her ancient white robes with long drooping sleeves and silver around the sleeves and belt. She looked very frail, but somehow strong at once. Her eyes looked empty. Not sad or angry or any of the things people were after their apparently husbands died; just empty. She was cradling a baby, a tiny face poking out of the blankets he was wrapped in.

Ocypete bowed, and so did Frank after a second of debating if bowing was his thing.

"Milady," the servant said.

The so called Princess looked at Frank.

"I believe him to be wise beyond his years," Ocypete said.

Frank looked at her crooked. She had looked at Frank as if he were a disgusting slug she'd stepped on and got stuck under her sandal for the whole walk. He should seriously refer the woman to Annabeth or Quinn. Piper, if things were supposedly touchy-feely.

"Ocypete," Andromache sighed. "I will not just be thrown around because the royal court thinks that-"

"Oh, but the king, Milady, the king."

Andromache pinched her lips.

"He worries about you day and night. Feverishly." Ocypete insisted. "He wants you to resume speaking to the family, he does so! Please. Talk to the boy. His name is…"

She looked at Frank, as if realising that he must have a name for the first time.

"Fai," he said. He didn't know why the Chinese name came out, but it did.

"Fai," Ocypete repeated.

Andromache closed her eyes, took a deep breath and cradled the baby closer.

"Take my son," she finally said. "Watch his head," she said lowering the baby to Ocypete's arms.

She turned back into her room and Ocypete nudged Frank inside. Frank was kind of oblivious and confused about what he was supposed to do. She just pushed him inside and closed the doors.

"I give you ten minutes." She told Frank. "Just to humour her and the rest of the palace."

Frank looked around. The windows were covered all but one, and there was barely no light in the room. Only one small candle that Queen Andromache was lighting, her sleeves drawn back to her elbows to avoid the flame.

She sat down on a couch like the ones the Romans dined on, and crossed her arms.

Frank realised that his ten minutes had started, and Ocypete didn't particularly look like the kind of person Frank could live with ticking off.

"I'm sorry about your loss," Frank said. "I know it means nothing, but I… Well, I don't know if anybody's told you that…"

"That's kind of you." The Queen said.

For a second it was quiet.

"And no. As a matter of fact, nobody has. They think Hector died for a good, strong cause. They think that it's noble and beautiful. They romanticise his death though death cannot be romanticised. They think that the cause makes it all okay. They think that giving him titles and honours make it all better."

"But it doesn't," Frank said thinking of the medal in the box he'd gotten once Mom died. It was on the Argo II right now. "It just makes it look cheap. A piece of ribbon doesn't replace the person you loved."

"But if you say so they think that you aren't grateful, and that you don't respect their sacrifice." Andromache nodded.

"Right," Frank nodded. "So you just shut up and say thank you. And lock yourself out of their world because they're obviously on the wrong track."

Queen Andromache nodded.

"That's what you're doing," Frank nodded.

She wrapped her arms around herself as if she were cold. It occurred to Frank that maybe he was supposed to ask her if she was cold and fix it since he was posing as a palace guard. He wondered where Hazel and the others were… He hoped Hazel was alright. He didn't want her to have a blackout and wake up at an Ancient Greek exorcism ceremony or something like that.

_No. She's strong. You've got to trust her._

The other voice in Frank's head said; _I trust her, I just don't trust what her body's doing to her._

"What bothers me is that I lost him all at once. All of a sudden." Queen Andromache said. "No goodbyes, no last words, it was so sudden and violent…"

"It could've been worst." Frank said. "It could've been something sapping at him day after day and making it long and painful, making him weak and frustrated and tired and unlike himself. It could've been slow."

She looked at him. "You speak from experience, don't you?"

"Yes." Frank said after a second.

She nodded.

"So… What is it like? Watching someone that you love die?" She asked after a second.

Frank was caught off guard by her question, and then he looked at her eyes. They weren't empty, they were full of pain. He saw her pain; it was in the way she carried herself and clutched her baby, all that she had left, the way her eyes shone… Frank could show her his.

"It feels like you're dying yourself. Like part of you is being chipped away and thrown out the window and into the sea every day. Every second you look at them. It feels helpless and frustrating and agonising and sad and horrible. And then you hate yourself because there's nothing you can do but try and make them smile, and then you hate yourself because smiling hurts them."

The queen digested this for a second.

"And what does mourn feel like?" She finally asked him, her eyes on his face.

Frank's throat was all clogged up and for a second and Frank thought that the stress of the quest and the prophecy and being in Troy and seeing Hazel… die might just finally crash down on him and make him crack.

"I don't know." Frank said. "I'm still being chipped at."

Andromache looked at him for a few seconds.

"What is she dying of?"

"She?"

"I _know _it's a she. Unless you're one of those men who prefer their own gender."

"No," Frank promised. "She's, yeah, she's a she."

"So what is she dying of? Illness? I can find the best physician in the land. Poison? I can find her a healer. Depression? I can grant her wish and pray to Apollo for her." Andromache said. "There is no reason for both of us to be in pain."

He swallowed hard.

"You can't save her," Frank said. "Bigger forces are at work. Apparently. She's… Well, we're trying to keep her on her feet but… it's harder."

He remembered that morning. He'd shaken her awake for ten minutes, saying her name, and trying to lure her out of sleep. For a second he'd gotten quite the scare that she _wouldn't _wake up. For a second he was scared that he wasn't touching Hazel but that he was touching Hazel's body. That he was trying to wake the dead, not a beautiful girl who was good and sweet and innocent and maybe naïve but overall smart about the world and myths and stones and strategy.

"I'm so sorry," Andromache said.

"Me too," Frank said.

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know. I had to come here." Frank said.

"Is she in Troy?"

"Yeah, somewhere here." Frank said.

"And you desperately want to be with her, don't you?"

"Yeah," Frank said. "But… I've got to trust her. She's a tough one. She's okay on her own." _I think._

Andromache got up from her chair.

"Come with me," she said.

"Umm, why?"

"To go find my son. Then I think I should check on the gardens- the gardener's an old drunk who's never been outside of Troy and who's never seen a proper one. He's just the best we have since the war started."

"Okay…" Frank said still not sure why this applied to him.

"Then it'll probably be time for meeting up with the family, and then a meal," Andromache said. "And since I have just decided to make you my personal guard; you'll leave for home at that point, earlier than the others."

Leo

Leo's day had been going fine until the chicken-man caught up to him.

He'd walked around for an hour, trying to find the others. He didn't see nor Quinn, Hazel, Frank, Piper or Josie in the crowd. Literally: nothing. He was getting scared because you could only pretend to look at fruit for a certain times before a) the merchants got mad at you and told you to buy something or b) the general population was starting to look at him as if he carried disease. He had to get off the streets somehow. Leo wasn't good at that. Leo was good at getting _on _the streets and staying there.

Then the chickens had cascaded into his life, running around his ankles and grabbing at the man-dress.

"What the..?"

"Nooooooooo!" Someone said. "No, no, no! Come back! Come back, chickens!"

Leo was suddenly pushed and he fell into a fruit stand that shot the smell of citrus into his nostrils.

"Watch it!" Leo yelled.

He'd observed the Trojans during the last few hours/millennia for which he'd roamed. It seemed considered acceptable to yell at the people who pushed you in the market area.

The man was scrawny. Scrawnier than Hazel or Josie; it was actually pitiful. It was as if sticks were poking out from a white chiton. He was barefoot, and exposing those little piggies to the world wasn't really a favour considering that these piggies were on diets apparently. His hair was like stretched out cotton balls. He was basically something Leo could've lived without seeing.

"No!" The man said. "Chickens, come to me!"

People were looking at the man as if he were a freak, and they weren't moving a muscle to help out. Leo had pity. He'd been that freak that nobody had helped once. Granted; he'd been more attractive, and better dressed. But still.

Leo sighed and ran up to the man. He grabbed a chicken on the way. He wasn't sure if there was a right way to grab a chicken, never having given it much thought or met many people who'd ever given it much thought (no wait- Percy probably had), but he grabbed it by the neck. It struggled against his hand, but Leo won.

He grabbed another one with his other hand and the man dove towards the ground to grab one, but it took off in miniature flight and he just ended up landing across the stand in a way that made Leo sure that he had just died.

But he got up and pleaded with Apollo to send his chickens back to him. Leo kind-of doubted that this would make Apollo pleased enough to grant a wish (and if it was, Leo was doing stupid stunts for buckets of KFC from now on), so he just said;

"Umm, excuse me? Sir? I caught two." Leo said.

The man turned around to face Leo.

"My chickens!" He said as if Leo had reunited him with some long-lost love or child.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Sorry about the others."

"It's okay. Two is enough for the day."

"Ah," Leo said. The man's hands were shaking in weakness, and his wrists were the width of an Argo II row.

"I'll carry them for you," Leo said.

"Thank you." The old man said. "Thank you, that's very kind!"

"No prob," Leo said. "Show me to your crib and I'll just drop these off."

"That's kind."

"What were you doing with a whole bunch of chickens, anyways?" Leo asked.

"Selling them," the old man said. "The gods know we need the money."

"I should've known it was about the cash," Leo said.

"You speak an odd dialect," he said. "Where are you from, son?"

"Tex- far, far away." Leo said.

"Really? Not from Greece, I hope."

"No. More North." Leo said.

"Hmm. You're still lucky my son isn't near the house. Really, he just doesn't like strangers."

"That's not cool," Leo said. "Who's your son? What's his beef?"

"Aeneas," the man said. "And let's just say that he's just not happy to be fighting an army of them."

"Oh," Leo said. He knew who Aeneas was at this point of his life, he'd talked to Jason and Piper enough. Jason was all 'ooh, Rome!' and Piper was like 'told'ja I have cool badass siblings'. "Oh, that's, wow. That's lovely. That's great, wow."

"Yes," the man smiled with pride. "He is a hero."

"I thought Aeneas was a prince or something."

"He's the general of the Dardanians," the man corrected. "Allies of Troy. And he is the third-cousin of the royal family here. He was Hector's main lieutenant as well."

"Oh. That's still a really cool job. Why is he living here, then? Why are you here? And why are you selling chickens if your kid's got a job like that?" Leo asked.

The old man's face became sad.

"Because of his son," he said. "Money is the only thing that can buy the drugs that keep him alive."

Leo's stomach tightened.

"My name is Anchises, by the way," he said.

"I'm Leo." He said. "It's… yeah; the name's from where I'm from."

"The North."

"Yeah, the North," Leo said.

"Is it a big island?"

"Pardon?"

"Is it a big island?"

"No, it's not. It's… not an island… more like a… continent?"

"Oh, like Egypt." Anchises said.

"Yeah, exactly like that." Leo said. "Except in the North."

"Of course," Anchises said.

The town got gradually nastier and nastier as they walked. The houses were smaller, the children playing got dirtier, the houses became towers of material kept together by sheer luck and the will of the gods…

"Here it is," Anchises said, throwing aside a sheet and letting Leo into a shabby one-room place. There was a fireplace with a low fire dug into the wall, with a metal poking stick at once side. A rickety table lay in the center of the room with a rickety chair whose back legs were shorter than the front legs. There was one bed that could fall apart anytime and one pile of sheets over a make-do straw mattress.

The actual bed was a low cot with a worn blanket occupied by a little kid.

"Ascanius," Anchises said. "It's me, I'm back."

The little boy poked him head out from under the sheets.

Leo had seen sick people before. The only friend he'd really made in the mortal world had died of cancer when he was about twelve since this ridiculously expensive surgery was the only way to deal with the impossibly rare tumour behind his brain, and the foster system was and is not a mine of gold and happiness. He woke up and spent time with Hazel every day and _that _wasn't pretty. But this kid was really, really badly off.

His cheeks were sunken into his body and he looked pale and distant and sick in most –if not every- way. He was just a bit skinnier than his grandfather, but his deep eyes were tinted a dark yellow like burned plastic.

Anchises hobbled over and kissed his grandson on the forehead and pushed the blanket further up to his chin. The kid turned onto his shoulder to face the wall and was incredibly still.

"So…" Leo said. "Where do I..?"

"I'm looking for a place…" He said looking left and right. "Ah, here's that spare cage."

It looked like a rusty death trap, but Leo lowered the chickens inside.

"So… this is where you guys live?"

"Yes," Anchises said. "We were lucky to get this. It was hard for my son to find an apartment for us."

Leo looked around. He'd lived in bad places, but nothing like this. It looked like it'd fall apart around them.

"There isn't any better for you two? I thought he was, like, high up…"

"Yes, but unfortunately he is a soldier like any other in Troy." Anchises said. "Well, maybe not _any _other, but he isn't Hector or Paris."

The old man grabbed Leo by the arm and dragged him far.

"We had to move out of the palace after they paid for the first few rounds of medicine and care that saved Ascanius' life when the illness stroke first," Anchises said. "It was a condition. Paris doesn't want me in the castle out of fear that I'd blow some sense into my cousin. He likes having Priam, the old dog, wrapped around his little finger. Why do you think men are dying outside these gates?" _Wrong; men and _Annabeth _are dying outside these gates. But hopefully not Annabeth. Or men either, while we're at it._

He used the knowledge Annabeth and Quinn had forced down his throat to associate who was who. Aeneas; one of Jason's heroes, saviour of a few Trojans, founder of Rome (but not yet); Priam was a king who was the father of a bunch of people including Paris and Hector and someone called Cassidy- no, Cassandra; Paris was the dude who'd kidnapped Helen and caused the war.

Did feeling smart always feel this good? Maybe he _should_ try that reading thing.

"So now you live here," Leo finished.

"Yes, and Aeneas stays in the palace and works hours to send enough money for us."

"But that's not enough." Leo said.

"Not anymore." Anchises said. "I can only pay for his medicine, but food and shelter and the everyday things a shelter needs are costly."

His eyes dwelled on his grandson.

"He might grow up and be a general like his father. He might be a healer, a philosopher, or an artist. He might save someone's life, or be a husband and a father. But I fear we will not know. What happens if there is a gap in humanity's knowledge because my grandson did not make it past his seventh birthday?"

"Seven? How old is he?"

"Six," Anchises said. "Seven in two months."

"Two months? Really?"

"Yes," Anchises nodded. "He's been fighting like a true soldier, but soldiers die eventually. If it's not the arrows, it's the spears. If it's not the spears, it's the swords. If it's not the swords, it's somebody's bare hands."

"And all you can do for him is…"

"Live here where his father can help more, and pray to the gods."

Leo did. Well, his own version of praying.

_Yo Hephaestus, you'll be my father in five gazillion years, are you catching all of this?_

"Well…" Leo said looking around. "I… I can help. I can fix this place up."

"You've rescued the chickens. We get eggs from them. That's plenty…"

"Yeah, well you don't need 'plenty' you need a miracle. And I'm not exactly everyone's dream come true, but I can help. For real." Leo said. "I like fixing things. I'm good at it, as a matter of fact. You'd actually be doing me a favour!"

* * *

><p><strong>Replies to everyone:<strong>

**Top to bottom:**

Guest- Got it.

Ryan- The Seven aren't where Malcolm can really contact them right now, and he's busy enough as it is. I am going with the prophecy. Nobody sees it yet, though. Also, I did add more about Piper's feelings later on.

GottaLuvLeoV- Long distance relationship, man. Or one of them moves (please don't make Jason move Uncle Rick, that just destroys your character…)

Blayze- TA-DAH! I did. And since you are the second person who asks about this, you may be getting another one tomorrow… maybe…

Percabethforever- Okay, so I know that that's the vibe the readers are getting, and that's what's supposed to happen. This is a Percabeth story, but it's a tough time for them. And Piper, Tommy, Frank and Jason don't mind Annabeth. Really Hazel is the only one who has major issues with her because she knew Percy first and Percy's like her big brother, and unlike Frank she has nothing in common with Annabeth that she can connect with. But everyone is confused with her. Yes.

And yes I do know if he will.

Thunderbolt- 1) Soon. After Troy.

2) Josie knows the future, but unlike the fates she doesn't create or change it. She is not one of them.

And so unlike for the fates it's not a power it's a curse. She knows exactly when she's going to die, and when the person next to her is going to die, and so forth: she has no say in it, she just knows. Like Rachel, a bit, except she doesn't need to wait until a prophecy happens and she can decide whether or not she shares. But she can't foretell current facts, like somebody's weakness or whey they're hurt or so forth. Like, if you asked her the price of gas of yesterday, she wouldn't know unless she'd seen a sign saying it; but she might know the price of gas for next Wednesday. But she's been dealing with this power for a long time so usually she can tell from your future how you are now. She's a creepy kid.

And her destruction power isn't really strong enough to do that. She got lucky with the Trojan Sea Monster, and that effort made her pass out.

But if she played it all psychological-warfare like, she could totally rule the world (which would be scary).

3) She's not, but that's how everyone's supposed to see her.

AMistyStar- Thanks and hmm- maybe.

Blossom146- Oh yeah. I don't care what happens in the story, you have to wait until the last chapter.

Becca3- Mmm, no. You're going to have to wait.

Unkown001- No, she's alive. And yes- jail break, coming soon to all. I have it all in my head, I just need it on paper.

Megan- I can't tell you that. You're gonna have to wait. Sorry!

ILOVEDUCKLINGS- Hope that answers your question, up above.

KirstyH96- AWW! Thanks!

selenagomez5802- Well, Troy is a big place. And people think that Piper is actually someone who's supposed to be in Troy, so for them that's cool. And if she weren't she would _make _herself part of that plan.

Percabeth234206- The last seven books haven't been about Percy and Annabeth getting together. That's something that's happened along the way and influenced it greatly.

Lily- A chiton is what Ancient Greeks wore. It's like a toga except shorter, not for special occasions. Google Image it, you'll see. Also people call me Hec a lot.

Cherrybubble- No, because real Helen has Katoptris, and if there is something that River Song taught me is that you cannot be at two places in the same time in time and space!

Sunny Snow- Yes, it was.

Leolove- THANK YOU!

AMistyStar- Yes I am, no the Jasper fans are not flaming because I told them not to, and thank you.

Pumpkin21- Thank you!

Goodness, that took a long time…


	83. LV Percy,Frank,Piper,Quinn,Annabeth

** Hey guys!**

**Four authors notes today:**

**One: I was told in a comment that my first author's note in the first chapter makes me sound whinny and ungrateful for your reviews. I apologise if this insulted anybody, I didn't mean it that way.**

**Two: tomorrow I leave for the Wilderness! YEAY! I'm a helping leader at girl guide camp. My sister's going to be there as a camper and my mom's there as a cook (That's right guys. My sister's a demigod, my mom's a harpy, and I'm a senior counsellor. Can someone say booya?) So don't expect my next chapter until Saturday or Sunday.**

**Three: Reyna. Chapters. I get that you all want to know what's going on with her, but the thing is, nothing is. She is doing the exact same thing she was last time you heard from her; so trying to maim and force info out of whoever comes down to the dungeons as best as she can, freaking out because she's claustrophobic and waiting for help to come. [Which they will shortly] I'll give you news when there is some. **

**Four: Happy Olympics you guys! I'm watching the opening ceremony while writing this and OHMYGOD J.K. Rowling and The Doctor were there. I love the British. **

**On an unrelated note that makes me happy; I saw Wicked last Sunday **

**So. Good. Guess what's in my head right now?**

** ALL THE SONGS ARE IN MY HEAD.**

**Yeah okay, so that wasn't relevant to you, but I'm very excited about Wicked. It makes me sad that I cannot sing or dance for my life because if not I could try going on Broadway.**

**Anyways, enjoy this chapter! **

* * *

><p>XXXXXV<p>

Percy

After that battle, he and Tommy did what all the other soldiers were doing and melted in with the crowd.

"That was fun," Percy said.

"I'm not sure if you're simply odd or if you got hit on the head," Tommy said shaking his head. "Are you hurt?"

"They wish. And you?"

Tommy shook his head. "I'm fine."

There was a cut on his cheek but that was the kind of thing that demigods were used to letting heal on its own when things were rougher.

"Have you seen Jason or…?"

He honestly didn't care that much about where Jason as long as the guy was alive. But…

"No, I did not see them." Tommy said. "I was kind-of busy if you can imagine that. But I did see Annabeth at some point. You could really tell she was a girl and that she didn't belong on this particular battlefield, I hope she makes it out okay."

Percy didn't say anything. He pushed the worrying out of his head.

There wasn't any real organisation for the soldiers. They seemed to be in the part of the city reserved for the soldiers, not too far from the big white castle. It honestly just looked like one of those many-porches-and-windows Hollywood vacation villas for celebrities or possibly Rachel Dare's parents, except blown up to billboard size, with golden railings on the multiple porches from which flowers drooped, statues, gardens and guards.

"Got a big one?" Percy asked.

"Pardon?"

"A big monster or guy," Percy said.

"You sounded like we'd just went fishing. Yes, he was about 155 pounds," Tommy said. Six feet five, I had to look up at him."

"You win," Percy said.

"What, it's a game?"

"Yeah, actually, it is. I hadn't realised that you'd never fought in a war before. But yes, demigods actually do this." Percy said.

"You aren't mad at the European camp about that, are you?" Tommy said. "About how we weren't there for the Titan war?"

"No, man," Percy said. "Not at all. You were surviving out in Europe on your owns. That wasn't easy. We have you on the ship, so that's something. Besides, Piper's been fighting better. We'll go and find everyone else you know when the war with Gaia is over and giants aren't a looming threat."

"Imagine the numbers that_ they_ will pull," Tommy said. He mimicked a voice; "He was 155 tons and about 60 feet high, I swear."

Percy laughed. Then he got serious again. He kept noticing that Tommy dodged questions about Europe a lot. Even where he was born (aside from Germany), who the people at camp were... "Can you tell me about them? The people from your camp?"

Tommy's eyes drifted off. "There were a lot of them."

"What about people our age?" Percy asked. "How many of them were there?"

"Quite a few, actually. We called it the baby boom. My best friend's name was Dani. She was Italian, and she could make berries and fish turn into a five star meal, I swear to the gods."

"I know an Italian guy called Ian. Italian cooking is _good._"

Tommy nodded. "She was unclaimed; and so on any holiday she'd make an anti-sacrifice to every god who could possibly be her father. She would hold food right above the fire and yell at the sky that they couldn't have it. She was loud and rude, mischievous and impolite and vicious; somewhat evil, completely insane."

Percy blinked. That was so unlike Tommy in every possible way, it nearly hurt. "I see why she's your best friend."

"Dani is Dani," Tommy shrugged. "She was funny and loyal, persistent and happy. Everyone forgave her for anything else. Then there was Aleks, who'd been at camp for longer than anybody else. Taller than anybody else too. He was a big guy, who didn't talk much and didn't need to. He loved animals though, he hated hunting or fishing. He had his soft spot and passion, he wasn't half as scary as he looked."

Percy thought of Beckendorf.

"Then Symon who is just a seven year old in a demigod son of Mercury's body. He likes to play games, and invent them, and sports and anything you can possibly imagine. But really he isn't immature; he's a good guy. He's optimistic and a dreamer and he's the reason we thought that we'd get by when things got really bad."

"The Leo Valdez type?"

"Yes, but sometimes Leo falls into bad memories. Sometimes he feels this incredible guilt that chews him out from the inside." Tommy said. "I don't know if you'd noticed…"

"Not really," Percy said. Reading people wasn't his talent. "Well, a bit…"

"Oh. Well, Leo does that sometimes. And Symon was… more mature. You have to be somewhat mature if you're living like we were.

Then there's Estefanìa, daughter of a muse we can't identify, who arrived at camp with a pack of jerky, a sleeping bag, matches, a change of clothes, and her guitar. She used to sit back around the fire wearing this white hat with a black ribbon around it, and strum out and sing whatever she had on her mind to sing. She was one of the little kids' favourite people to be around; warm and happy all the time, very reassuring. Her voice was incredible; she could charm the birds out of the trees.

Marie-Pierre was French, and she had this… this obsession with numbers… and shapes. Sequences and algebra were her favourite, but she loved everything from long division with a stick in the dirt, to this sequence invented by a guy called Fibonacci-"

"Please don't explain that to me."

"I couldn't if I tried," Tommy promised. "She was a daughter of Athena. Not like Annabeth who can do anything, just math in her case. She loved it, for some reason. She was one of the smartest people I'd ever met. She was quiet and introvert, but she'd have jumped into a building in flames if any of us were stuck in there.

And then there was Eric, who was a son of Urania, the muse of astronomy. He slept _so _much during the day, and stayed up all night watching the stars. Being his guard partner was fun because you got to not pay attention since he was a night owl. He could find any constellation; tell you its name, the Greek legend, the Latin name, the astronomical position and all kinds of other stats. He was very observant."

"They sound like good people," Percy said.

"They are." Tommy said. His face looked sad and worried and thoughtful right then.

"I bet others escaped and made it somewhere safe," Percy said. "We'll find them."

Tommy nodded, but he didn't look so sure. "Europe is a big place, Percy. It's not exactly searchable."

"Sure it is. It's been done before." Percy said. "Like… I don't know when, but I'm sure if you asked Quinn she'd know."

"I was the only German guy in that camp. If those who fled don't have their passports, which I assume they won't have since we were attacked in the night, they could get in trouble with the government. And that's not even mentioning the monsters and Gaia herself."

"You had your passports with you?" Percy asked.

"All of us. When we left our parents to either look for the camp or go with a scout, we had them. It was a piece of home, I suppose." Tommy said. "To remind us where we were from."

"Do you still have your passport?"

"I do. I carried it in my back pocket all the time. It's on the ship, I suppose."

"Or wherever our actual clothes are," Percy said. He had a really creepy image of a god walking around Olympus and stumbling on a pile of clothes. Worst, if Hermes found them, Percy would be stuck wearing the man dress and armour forever.

"Hey; you two," someone said walking up to them.

"Yes sir?" Tommy asked.

"Where do you come from?"

"We're new," Percy said, knowing that if he got nervous Tommy's accent would thicken to the point of being questionable. "Sent in from the city this morning."

"Alright," the general said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Perseus," Percy said. Thank the gods for his mom.

"I'm Cicero." Tommy said. Percy was guessing that this was the only ancient Greek name that he knew which was a lot better than Percy's knowledge on it. He realised that they were probably screwed if they were asked to be integrated into the Ancient Greek lifestyle. Oh well; they could copy-cat it.

"Alright. Where are you from?"

"Troy." Tommy said.

"Yeah, Troy, of course." Percy said.

The general nodded gruffly. "I'm assuming the attack went by so quickly that you didn't actually get assigned a tent."

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened." Percy said, not believing their luck.

He shouldn't have, but oh well.

The general guy brought them over to a tent. People kept stiffening up and bowing when he came by, so Percy decided that he'd do that next time he could.

They were propelled into a canvas tent that looked alarmingly like the Camp Half-Blood war tents. Bunk beds were set up, and a few soldiers were sitting around and goofing off, saying jokes that Annabeth and Piper would've slapped them for saying while Hazel stood there confused, Quinn blushed and Josie laughed.

"Men," the general said. The same stiff-then-bow reaction followed.

"These two are new. Make them feel welcome."

One of them had a mean brightening in the face that reminded Percy way too much of Clarisse on her way to dunking your face in the toilets when you got to camp. He knew they were screwed.

"Yes sir," the Mean One said. The general left, off to check things off from his busy-general-to-do list.

_[i]There are two of us; there was one of me back then. Let's do this thing,[/i] _Percy thought.

"Well," the Mean One said. "What have we here?"

"Two teenage guys, it appears." Percy said. "I'm Perseus," he said trying to friendly things out.

"I'm not interested." Mean One said.

"Pleased to meet you," Percy said. "If you'll just let me and my friend go now…"

They were surrounded.

"We're on the same side," Tommy said. "Come on, guys."

Percy wanted to tell him that that was never actually an excuse anywhere, but he shut up. Let Tommy think that everyone on the same side as you will always be helpful. He was used to that philosophy anyways.

Mean One made a mean imitation of Tommy's voice.

Percy's hand went to the hilt of his sword.

"It's cool," Percy said. "Come on."

"Nervous, newbie?" Mean One said. "You know, I've been here for fifteen years."

"Wow, you're old." Percy said. "I mean, I've been here for fifteen minutes."

"Goodness the tent is old." Tommy said.

Which was pretty much one of the only times he had heard Tommy be mildly disrespectful and insulting to anyone, and kind-of amazed Percy. He'd have to tell Piper about this. She probably knew, though.

Mean One's hand shot out and grabbed Percy's shoulder.

"And there's an initiation ritual you should know about."

Percy decided that he could be sarcastic for a little longer. It felt good to take his problems out on someone. He couldn't be a jerk to people on the Argo II because they didn't deserve it. Nor could he be a jerk to Annabeth because, well, because she was Annabeth. And of course then it made Hazel have issues with her more, and then Annabeth snapped at him and Piper got mad at him for pushing it, and then the whole boat went into full-out panic-mode and Jason got all responsible-leader-like.

But he was angry and frustrated nearly all the time now, and it was good to dish it out on someone that deserved it.

"For this tent?" He asked.

"No, I believe it's for the general army. Silly me, I thought that was the signing-up part." Tommy said.

Mean One's fist shot up and made a connection with Percy's jaw, on which he drew his sword and slashed through the air, hitting the wrist and pushing it away from him, as the others drew their swords.

Oh he was [i]_so_[/i]going down for this…

Tommy drew his own sword and they backed up. Mean One's minions sort-of rounded around and circled them, a few other soldiers just sat on their bunks and watched what would happen next.

Mean One's minion number one charged at Percy, but he blocked, and he heard Tommy's sword making metal-on-metal contact as well. Mean One decided that he didn't have to woos out over his cut anymore, and he charged. Percy swiped at his fighter's legs and he collapsed against the bunk. Percy kicked him square in the chest and blocked Mean One's sword. He didn't know what Tommy was doing, but if he had two guys here, then so did Tommy.

Mean One appeared to have survived in the tent fifteen years for a reason; he was good. Scary good. Percy managed to keep throwing the other guy back so that he could fully focus on Mean One. He hadn't fought against a talented swordsman whose tactics and style he didn't know in a long time. This felt kind-of like Clarisse, except there wasn't as much strength behind the blows (which Percy wasn't complaining about, but which also strengthened his beliefs that Clarisse Larue was not a normal being).

Then he heard metal on flesh and Tommy cussed in German.

Everything stopped and Percy looked over his shoulder at Tommy. [i]_Everyone_[/i]was looking at Tommy. His left cheek was cut up from the corner of his eye to the corner of his lips, bleeding.

"That's the language of a Barbarian," someone finally said, their words clumsy as if they'd just gotten their jaw dislocated and fixed in the last half hour.

Percy's brain scrambled to figure out what exactly 'Barbarian' meant.

He remembered that according to the Romans, anybody who wasn't Roman was a barbarian unless you were a Greek or an Egyptian. So… the Germanic tribes in Gaul and such places or possibly the Mongolians, Percy didn't know where they fit in in ancient history. Quinn could probably tell him.

Oh. Crud. Trojans- Romans, really the difference was just a few miles north and a horse. Did they..?

"INFILTRATOR!" Someone yelled.

Before Percy could do anything others flooded into the tent, Percy was dragged away from Tommy and pinned against a bunk, and Tommy was dragged out of the tent.

Frank

He wouldn't lie and say that he didn't enjoy following Andromache around. Not in the creepy stalker way, of course. But it was better to have a job than just to stand around and risk being spotted as an infiltrator. Also, he liked seeing her wander the garden, bobbing her son up and down in her arms. He was obviously her favourite thing in the world, her ultimate concern, her pride and joy and all that jazz. She knelt at times and unwound his baby fingers from her hair (which he always grabbed) and touched them to soft looking petals. She chatted with Frank too, and she was a surprisingly funny person. Something about her wasn't toned down and royal. Or maybe she was just that way when people weren't around to tell her so. Mostly Frank stood around straight and held his spear as if he were at muster.

The gardens were great too. Colour and life and peace and quiet. Only the squirming baby made noises every now and then. The kid was also pretty cute as far as babies went, not that Frank knew many babies.

Every time Andromache would walk some more, Frank followed to stay close since he'd been promoting to personal guard. The garden was huge, and surrounded by the palace. Patios went around it at different levels, servants and guards walking back and forth.

"Do you live in the city or with the troops outside the palace?" Andromache asked.

"Depends," Frank said, figuring that it was safe.

"Do you need much time to go home?"

"No," he said. He was pretty sure that [i]_somebody_[/i]was still in Troy itself. If he could pretend he had a home there, he could look for Hazel, Leo, Quinn or Josie and see how that happened. If the troops were in the city, maybe at least one of the four who'd stayed on the battlefield would be there. He didn't know how they'd split up. Either way; he'd do that, and wing it from there.

"What's your son's name?" Frank asked.

"Scamandrius," Andromache said. She pushed a curl behind her ear. "My grandfather's name. The people of Troy nickname him Astyanax, and it's caught on with all of us. It means High King. They hope that one day he will be, because none of the other heirs to the throne have had children."

"I'm sure he'll be great," Frank said, not sure what else.

Andromache laughed. "You don't need to say that. He's still a baby. Time will tell but for now he's just happy grabbing my hair- now aren't you?" She asked shifting her words from Frank to Astyanax. She blew a raspberry on his cheek and the baby giggled. She pried his hands from her hair, and pushed it over her shoulders. Frank had seen her do this a million times, but there was just so much of it that it always fell back and Astyanax was apparently a vicious predator of curls.

She readjusted him so that he theoretically couldn't do it again.

"I hope so, though. I hope he gets somethingfrom his father, no matter what it is. Honestly, out of the gene pool that Troy's kings and queens represent, this one got lucky. Thank goodness I have [i]_some_[/i]quality control." Andromache said.

Frank had a feeling that this wasn't the kind of thing she was supposed to say, but she winked at Frank.

He liked her a lot, he reminded her of his mom in a way. She was playful and he had a feeling that she was really happy in other times, and that it brought her to life. Also she clearly loved her son, and if Frank could say one thing about growing up is that he'd been loved by a great mom. But she was sadder, and it was like she'd aged ten years in the split-second it took Achilles' sword to kill her husband. Somehow that made her wiser. It was complicated.

She sent Frank to get a toy back in her chambers, a small lion carved out of wood. He found the first three letters carved under one of the front paws, and the Greek his mind had absorbed the second the boat had docked told him that the carpenter had had a name starting with 'Hec'. He doubted it was Hecate the magic goddess, or Hecuba the Queen of Troy.

When he got back she sat down with Astyanax on her knees and he kept trying to grab the toy, but she messed with his mind for a few minutes before she let him have it. He used it as a chew toy.

At some point she looked at the sun, shielding her eyes with a hand, which left Astyanax a clear coast to grab handfuls of her hair.

"What time does it look like?" She asked.

Frank looked up.

"Two in the afternoon, I guess." He said.

"That's what I thought," she said. "Come. It's time to meet the relatives."

Piper

Followed by the flock of servants, Piper made her way into the throne room.

Two thrones were surrounded by smaller, more modest ones. She saw Paris sitting in one, leaning over the armrest and talking to the woman in the bigger one. He looked up once the doors opened.

"Ah. Helen." He said. He was clearly mad at her. [i]_Oh well, maybe he'll leave me alone. If he tries to kiss me, I _am _afraid that I'll have to hit him._ [/i]That made her think about Tommy. Oh gods. Her mind went into a cycle of worrying about him.

Things were weird now that he may or may not be [i]_literally_[/i]her soul mate. She was sixteen. Daughter of Aphrodite or not, no sixteen year old thought 'yup; today's the day I've found my soul mate'. So that part was awkward, but that didn't change that he was Tommy, he was sweet, kind, shy, interesting, respectful, and a million other things, and that she was Piper and for some reason she was what he wanted.

Elissa nudged her after a second and directed her eyes to the throne next to Paris. Piper got the message and got going, making a mental note to thank Elissa later. It seemed that a single compliment got you far in Troy. She wondered how much that said about the kind of rights that people had.

She surveyed the other people there. There was an old woman with white curly hair and old blue eyes with wrinkles at the corner, obviously long used to being in a monarchy judging by the tilt of her head, and she was wearing a dress that seemed more golden weaving than white fabric. There was Paris, but that wasn't interesting. A girl with unruly black hair, full lips and dark eyes was next. She looked exotic to Piper, not that her looks were enormously unique, but she seemed special.

"Helen, have you seen King Priam?" The woman asked. "Nobody has seen my husband since before the attack."

[i]_King's husband= Queen,_ [/i] Piper thought. So this was Queen Hecuba.

"No, my Queen," Piper said. "I have not."

The queen chewed on her index, a distracted nervous habit obviously. Lacy did that. Which made her think about her siblings and Rome and [i]_Mitchell…_[/i]

Piper took her seat next to Paris, who promptly ignored her. She leaned back in the chair, nervous.

When Paris did look at her, he starred at her collarbone and his eyes narrowed.

"Where did you get that?" He asked.

"Get what?" Piper asked.

"That necklace."

Her hand flew up to the ring.

"Oh," she said. "This…" [i]_Stupid, you should've hidden it…_[/i]"Just a jewel I found astray in the chambers." She tried to make it sound meaningless. She fixed the top of her dress to hide it.

"I didn't give that to you."

"I can't recall," Piper said.

He reached out, snatched it from around her neck, and pulled the chain right off. The chain snapped after choking her for a second, and Piper's jaw dropped, her hand flying to her throat. That was Tommy's! The first thing he'd given her, the first reason they'd talked! Rage boiled in her stomach.

"You shan't wear another man's jewels." He said menacingly. "Do I make myself clear?" He growled.

"No, you make yourself possessive and quite despicable." Piper snapped back.

The Queen and the other Princess there looked at Piper shocked. Nothing beat Paris' face, though. That's how she realised that she'd screwed up big time.

She turned her head away, trying to act natural.

"May I have it back?" She asked, not looking at him, layering the charmspeak.

"No, you mayn't." He said.

Well that didn't work. She was too angry, she couldn't concentrate it enough.

A door opened and another woman with long curly hair came in, cradling a tiny baby who was holding a wooden lion. She was followed by- Holy Styx, was that Frank? It was! What was he doing in the palace?

His face had the same reaction when he saw her.

"Andromache!" The queen, Hecuba if Piper was right, said standing up. "What a marvellous surprise."

"Hmm," the woman, Andromache, said. She was… oh, shoot, who was she? The baby reminded Piper of a movie on Troy… Wait- Hector's wife! That's who she was. "It shouldn't be a surprise."

"We haven't seen you in a long time," the other Princess said.

"As you shouldn't have, Cassandra." Andromache said.

So [i]_that_[/i]was who the other Princess was; Cassandra the seer that nobody believed.

"Does the child have to be here?" Paris asked.

"I asked the same thing when I walked in here for the first time," Andromache said looking at Paris pointedly.

Piper liked her. She stopped trying to visually communicate with Frank, to look at Paris' face.

"What is wrong with you [i]_both_[/i]today?" He said looking from Andromache to Piper. Piper was about to say something about the weather but Andromache said nothing, and just took her obviously designated spot. Two spots down from the throne taken by the absent king. Piper guessed that Hector took the one she left empty. But of course if Achilles was dead, which Annabeth and Quinn had been quite sure about, so was Hector.

Piper went back to trying to meet Frank's eyes and catch his attention.

Just then the main doors opened, and the man who was obviously the king entered. Everybody got up and bowed, and Piper followed, trying not to look late.

"Hello, Father." Paris said. "We were worrying about you."

"Did you have another… episode?" Cassandra asked hesitantly.

"Oh no, I'm fine." He said.

He was dragging his right leg, Piper noticed. The arm on the same side was limp, as if he'd had a stroke at some point.

"Although I did have an interesting conversation with the new stable hand, Paris, a very good addition to the palace." Priam said, taking his seat.

After about twenty minutes, Piper had figured out how these things worked.

The men in the room talked. The women looked. And said nothing. And tried not to make any noises. Or breathe too loudly. Or move.

[i]_Shoot me now._[/i]Piper thought. [i]_I'm like a decoration. Please; Now._[/i]

That was when Piper understood why only the servants could be wrapped up by the charmspeak. Because they were the only ones [i]_listening_[/i] to her. Paris or Priam wouldn't listen; to them she had nothing to say because she was a girl. That was the first step to charmspeaking; having people listen to you. Then you could layer on the magic and get people under your control.

She knew this because Lacy and Mitchell had insisted that she practise at Camp, and she figured that since they were willing and she didn't make them do anything mean or embarrassing, it was morally okay.

Cassandra looked lost in her own thoughts, probably due to years of practise of this, and Andromache was keeping her baby busy which looked entertaining enough. The child was so cute, Piper wanted one. Not literally though, but he was freaking adorable.

She was debating on how hard faking an epileptic seizure would be, when the door burst open and a guard came in. There seemed to be a struggle in the back and everyone in the room sat up a little higher, alert.

"My Lords," he said. "My Ladies," the guard in the lead bowed. "We have found an infiltrator in the ranks of our soldiers. Someone not from Troy."

[i]_Ooh, a scandal,_[/i]Piper thought, bored out of her mind.

"Bring him before us, then." Paris said before the real king could speak.

More guards came in, wrestling to keep a guy whose hands were tied behind his back under control. His hair was thick and brown, his skin burned by the sun and the wind.

They kicked him in the shins to force him to his knees and bow.

Piper's heart stopped for some reason. He… looked a lot like…

"Look at the king whose armies you tried to poison," a guard said roughly.

He looked up and Piper nearly screamed.

It was Tommy.

"And who are you?" The king asked.

Tommy didn't say anything. He'd seen Piper too. His eyes were focused on her for a second. As panicked as Piper was she thought [i]_no, look away, pretend not to know me, I can get you out of this…_[i]

"Answer," Paris growled.

"My name is Cicero," he said.

"That's a Greek name," King Priam said. "I don't see what the problem is."

"We think he's from the Northern lands. Gaul or Germania, or something in the likes." The guard said.

Piper nailed her eyes into Tommy's back. [i]_You spoke German, didn't you? You speak Latin, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, English, French and Dutch, and you decided to go with_[/i]German?, she thought.

Paris got up. "Are the Northern barbarians planning to launch an attack on Troy? Have the Greeks sent word for reinforcements? A sneaky plan of Odysseus? Are you the only one here?"

Tommy kept silent.

"Answer to the Prince," the guard said, shoving him forwards. He toppled forwards and Piper had to stiffen her legs to keep herself from getting up and helping him. Like, really hard. While she was 'Helen' she could still help him more than if she was in a dungeon cell. She had a feeling he'd need it.

This went on for a few minutes. Trying to get words out of Tommy, who'd seemed to forget not only the Greek but also the Latin, German, English, Portuguese and so forth. Piper hoped that he wasn't thinking about the last time he'd been interrogated. The women of Lemnos… losing the camp… She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

"Alright then, take him out. Off with his head, we don't have time for this." Paris said.

"No!" Piper said quickly, jumping to her feet after holding herself still for too long of a time.

Everyone turned to look at her. Maybe Helen of Troy was actually mute, because every freaking time she opened her mouth people stared in shock.

"Helen, I don't-"

"But, you were right," Piper said. She sat down. "What if he isn't alone? What if the Greek army is about to grow? If there are other infiltrators in the palace? It's like you said," Piper's mouth got painful, "[i]_Husband_[/i]_. _ He would be the only one to know since your clever guards only found one infiltrator so far."

She saw Tommy's face from the corner of her eyes and boy, was he confused. Piper shot him an apologetic look. [i]_Great. I don't see him for a few hours and next thing that happens; I'm apparently married. This must look really good._[/i]

But she had to play it up to save him. Her charmspeak wouldn't work, but charms worked against anybody. Although she hated using beauty and charms and grace as an excuse, it was what she had, and she had to work with it. She couldn't just be the out-of-character princess anymore. She had to pretend to be Helen, be and Ancient Greek, be married to Paris.

Tommy's life depended on it, and Piper would not hold back anything to save it.

Paris considered this.

"You are right," Priam said. "This is no time to be cutting our resources and closing doors. If the Greeks are about to get stronger we need to know."

Piper didn't volunteer her information about the Trojan horse.

"Dear me Helen, it seems that these years in the castle have given you quite the mind." Priam said, smiling at her.

[i]_I'm born with it._ [/i] She thought bitterly. God, keeping her mouth shut was hard, and she wasn't particularly prideful. She had a lot of trouble imagining Annabeth in this situation. She'd have killed everyone in the room twenty minutes ago.

She bowed her head to him.

"Fine then. Take him to the dungeons. We'll deal with him again tomorrow."

[i]_Tomorrow; okay, a deadline. I can work with that._ [/i]

She watched the guards haul him away. She wanted to go and help him, but she wasn't even armed. She still felt horrible, sitting down while he got dragged to a dungeon in Ancient Greece.

[i]_You're better off out here, helping him out._ [/i] She convinced herself. 

She looked over at Frank. Frank met her eyes. He hadn't moved either. Thank the gods. The second they started thinking that imposters were all over the place was the second that the crew would get picked up off the streets and grounds of Troy one by one and be put in jail. They were useless that way.

Was that why Gaia had sent them to Troy? To try and get a few of them killed before they got to Greece? They'd been so close before they'd woken up that morning…

She bit her lips and the giant doors closed again.

Andromache got up.

"If you will excuse me, Astyanax is hungry and tired." Andromache said.

"Of course," Hecuba said. "You can hand him off to Ocypete, she is near."

"No thank you, Queen Hecuba, I shall care for him myself." Andromache said. "Fai," she said looking at Frank over her shoulder. He followed her out.

Piper was insanely jealous. The kid was cute, entertaining [_i]and_[/i] it got her out of sitting here.

"Andromache is unlike herself." Paris said.

"Hector is dead." Priam said. Creases formed in his forehead. "It is hard on us all. He was her husband, and the father of her child."

"I think he still is," Piper said before she could help herself.

"Really, now?" Cassandra asked.

Piper nodded. "I think that when you love someone hard enough, they're always in your heart, dead or alive."

"You've seen this before, have you?" Paris asked.

She was about to mention Percy remembering Annabeth, but that ship had sunk so…

"No, but I believe in it." Piper said.

He looked away.

Frank

Okay, so he was freaking out. Tommy was in the dungeons as some kind of spy that was under high risk of being [i]_executed_[/i]_, _which probably meant that someone from the 20th/21st century out there was in deeper trouble than that. Not to mention that Piper was playing with fire while kicking a hornet's nest. She wasn't a princess. She was a decent actress, but she'd get found anytime now. Her outburst with Tommy had been a big clue, and from what Frank had gathered, she wasn't using her charmspeak which probably meant that something was extremely wrong.

"Princess Andromache?" He asked.

"Yes?" She asked.

"That woman sitting next to Paris…"

"Her name is Helen," Andromache said bitterly. "Don't let her looks fool you."

"Trust me; her looks aren't fooling me anytime soon." Frank muttered. Ewe. Piper. That was Piper. Piper wasn't romantically attractive. She was… [i]_Piper._[/i]

"No but… is she… acting unlike herself?"

The princess sighed.

"Fai, I am very badly placed to tell you about Helen of Troy." Andromache said. "I do not like her, I have never liked her, and I will not start liking her anytime soon."

"Ouch," Frank said.

"Indeed." Andromache said. "Some people deserve what they get in life. Aeneas, Hector's lieutenant, was the prince of a small city-state but in Troy he is now the general of troops. Some people don't deserve what they now have and one of those people is Helen. She might be beautiful, but other than that she is a decoration. She doesn't know what to do with herself because she never has had to do anything with herself. She does not deserve riches, she does not deserve palace life, she does not deserve the succulent food she is given, and she most definitely is not worthy of a war being cast over her."

"That's why you hate her so much," Frank understood.

"That is [i]_one_[/i]of my reasons." Andromache said. Talking was making her furious. "I am not the most beautiful woman in the world, and part of me –[i]_most_[/i]of me- thanks the god for it."

"But you're not, like, Medusa or anything." Frank said awkwardly.

"I don't know where you're from, Fai, but it takes a great deal of beauty to be anything in this world. I had to be intelligent and just and interesting to be of any worth to anybody, and even that wasn't enough for anyone until Hector came. Men here are interested in one thing, and one thing only and unfortunately for them I am not some… some nymph lover. I used to hate myself for it when I looked in a mirror or when princes never got back to my father after seeing me. Now I thank the gods I wasn't classically gorgeous. I respect people who work, such as you. I respect people who have a will, such as Cassandra. But I don't respect beauty. I don't respect sitting around and getting everything you need and want. Speaking for that prisoner was the first useful thing Helen has done in these walls."

Frank didn't press. He was half tempted to tell her that Helen was actually Piper, but he quickly voted against it.

He watched Andromache sing a lullaby to Astyanax and lower him into his crib.

"And the reason I despise Helen the most," Andromache said in a whisper, "is that because of her, now my son has to grow up without a father. Is one woman worth that?"

"Well, I don't know. Paris loves her. I'm ready to do some pretty extreme things for… the girl that I love." He said. He didn't want to say her name, were names of colours common in Ancient Greece?

"For love, maybe. Love is worth many things. Love is worth more than everything glittering in this palace. But tell me, can you really fall in love with a woman you've only seen for a few days, knowing she was married, barely talking to her, having only been given a promise by a goddess that is known to be tricky?" Andromache said. "I doubt it."

"So… this war… isn't even about love?" Frank asked.

"No," Andromache said. "It is about lust. Aphrodite just likes her love stories. If it was about love, the widows of Troy would rise and burn down the Greek camps in the night. And I would be in that mob."

Quinn

She was panicking at this point.

a) She hadn't found anybody else in Troy so far. No way was this a good sign.

[i]_They might be dead. Did you ever think of that? Their blood on the stones of a road that isn't real. Dead in a place that is populated by the dead already, created by Gaia._ [/i]

b) Night was falling which meant that 1) she had to get undercover and 2) the voices were starting. It was getting worse and worse, Quinn spent her days with migraines now.

c) She couldn't wear her glasses because those hadn't been invented yet, so her close vision was bad.

She sighed in frustration. And fatigue.

She knew about many more forms of torture.

[i]_Neat, so do we._ [/i]

More than your regular person, at the least. Chinese water torture had always intrigued her. You only needed a drop of water at a time, and one spot of someone's forehead. And then its weight got bigger. Its pain got worst. Its amplitude was amplified.

[i]_We're considering trying that. According to the Wikipedia entry, it has more effect on boys with green eyes and brown hair, so good thing we have one of those to test that theory out!_[/i]

When someone started bullying you in school, it didn't mean that much. It hurt. It hurt a lot. But after days, weeks, months, years… It started being more than an ache. It was a flesh eating pain. It started becoming a big load to carry.

These voices were worse bullies than Jean LeCavalier was when she was still in school, back in Québec.

[i]_Second grade. He pulled your hair out of its pigtails and he slingshot the elastics back at you. Third grade he started stealing your books. Remember? He held one over a sewer hole until you started crying and gave him the money you were going to buy your father's birthday present with. _[/i]

Worse than Sylvie Gaston and Léa Jeaurond who used to point at her and giggle because she had circles under her eyes, because her nose was in a book, because her hair was messy since getting up in the morning took so long because of fatigue that she didn't brush it on some days, because she didn't have a mother, because she always ran away from Jean and whoever else there was…

[i]_ "Hey Quinnie,"_ [/i]The voice was exactly like Sylvie Gaston's. Her French slang, Quebecois accent, and so forth.[i]_ "Did that book you were reading yesterday tell you how to use a brush?"_

_"Or concealer. What about eye shadow? Goodness knows, you need it."_ [/i]Léa's voice added. 

Quinn remembered that day. They'd been doing a geography project in the library as a class. She'd been trying to ignore them, but suddenly one of them was on each side of her, forcing an answer.

[i]_ "It… the books it… it was about… not that."_ [/i]A perfect replica of her own voice said. Stutter and all. Gods, she hated that statter.

[i]_ "Oh, silly us."_ [/i]_ '_'Sylvie' said.[i]_ "Must've been about how not to scare moms away when you're born."_ [/i]

Worse than Joan who could never see a thing Quinn could succeed at.

[i]_Drop the books!_ [/i]A voice that had scared the wits out of Quinn a multitude of times said. [i]_If you weren't smart enough to be a medic when you joined, it won't be the books that change that, Hunter. Start focusing on that army crawl._ [/i]

Because these voices didn't pick on her alone. They picked at her heart. They picked at who she loved. At her worst fears, her regrets, the things she'd never told Jedediah before leaving, the friends she'd left in New Rome. Over and over.

Those drops of water were heavy.

[i]_Know what else is heavy? Anvils. Anvils dropped on somebody's head. Maybe a beautiful brown head. _[/i]

She tried not to think about it, but of course Jedediah's face came to mind. Shaggy brown hair and beautiful green eyes.

"Hey, you." Someone called.

[i]_Yeah; he's talking to you. Somebody finally wants to talk to you for the first time. Exciting, isn't it?_ [/i]

Quinn froze like a rabbit. Should she run? No. Not yet.

She turned around. A pudgy man that reminded her of that Fifth Cohort Lares, Vitellius, was walking towards her. He was armed and obviously important in some way.

[i]_More than you, evidently. Then again, so is a dead pigeon._ [/i]

"Yes sir?" Quinn asked.

"Who are you?"

[i]_That depends: how does one say 'An outstandingly stuttering bundle of nerves and weakness' in Greek?_ [/i]

"My name is Quinn-umm- Quintina, sir." She said.

She figured that since Latin was closer to the era than English, she might as well try her real name.

[i]_Did you figure that all by yourself?_ [/i]

"Are you alone?"

[i]_Forever._ [/i]

"Well… Yes… I am…" Quinn said uncomfortable. She knew how Ancient Greece worked; and she knew that girls weren't supposed to walk around the market alone.

[i]_Even in the twenty-first century you can't go anywhere alone. Can't take care of yourself, can't talk to people… it's amazing that that Cate girl doesn't charge as a babysitter._ [/i]

Quinn swallowed. Cate was her first and closest friend. She used to get scared of losing Cate because so many people wanted her near. She trusted Cate, of course. These voices were the biggest reason. Heavy. Drops. Of water.

"No brother? Father? Husband?"

[i]_Not for long, anyways. _[/i]

"Not here," she said, swatting away the words.

"Hmm." The man said. "I'm going to have to escort you home, Miss."

"No!" Quinn said nearly too quickly. She had nowhere to go.

[i]_Get used to it. You weigh down the Argo II too much for them to prevent the apoca-_[/i]

Quinn swatted them away again (well, mentally). "I can go home myself," she said figuring that there was an alley in Troy with her name on it. Maybe she'd find Josie or Leo there. Quinn figured that somewhere in their instincts was the faculty to find an alley after all these years.

[i]_Yes; what can you do?_ [/i]

"I can't let you do that." The man said. "Let me-"

Quinn ran in the opposite direction, pushing through crowds and lifting her skirt from her ankles, praying that her glasses wouldn't fall out from where she'd clipped them, at her collar. She couldn't afford to lose them there.

"HEY!" She got yelled at by the guy. But in the flood of people going home after a day in the market, Quinn melted in.

Annabeth

Annabeth made a detour as she walked back to camp. She knew that it was dangerous and blah blah blah, but so was existence in general when you thought of it.

She acted more confident than she was, as per usual, and got to the camp where the banners of Sparta hung limp on their poles. There was no wind to make them fly, no wind to take away the stench of blood.

She talked to the guard and told him that she was looking for someone with short blond hair and icy blue eyes. A scar above his lip, tall, younger.

She got some Styx from them, but she had a glare that Reyna thought was Roman. Plus she was particularly mad lately. So eventually someone came back with Jason.

"I need to talk to you, Spartan." Annabeth said. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him away, ignoring the whistling and comments.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked immediately.

"I'm fine. I'm in a good position." Annabeth said. "What about you?"

"Good. Yeah, Sparta has some strict organisation, but apparently I look like a dead guy. So until they find his body, I'm good." Jason said. "You? How did everything work out?"

"I found a guy under the favour of my mom," Annabeth said. "He knew I was a daughter of Athena when he saw me. He actually had me talk to a bunch of kings. Yours is a jerk."

"Got that," Jason said. "Wow."

"How are you doing?"

"I don't [i]_like_[/i]having to follow people around without any say."

Annabeth had known this about Jason. But she'd never heard him say it.

"Like; I don't [i]_have_[/i]to be praetor or leader or captain or whatever to be happy. I mean, I've been a legionnaire nobody for most of my life. But I like having my word in things. I like being able to decide where I go and what I'm used for, or at least have a good idea of what's going on, you know? I don't like being powerless when things are happening or when people need help." Jason said.

The meaning nearly bled through the words. He might not like being herded into the Spartan army; but Annabeth knew what he was also talking about. Reyna. It must be killing him to be so far from where she was held captive, without organising an attack force or a rebellion or a way to help her. He was powerless there too.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I've got to work on that."

Annabeth nodded. "Well, you know, we all do. I've got to swallow my pride, Reyna's got to soften up, Percy has to… cut strings… you've just got to work on that. We're demigods. It's part of our sucky gig."

Jason nodded.

"I just wanted to check on you. Better I not dwell here; I'm getting looks."

"I'll see you later," Jason said. "Also…" He stopped for a second. "I saw Percy during battle. He's fine."

Annabeth swallowed. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't know," Jason said. "I guess I still think you're human. I'm not Hazel or Tyson."

Well, Annabeth couldn't really blame Hazel. All she'd known about the Greeks was Percy, and unlike Frank whose military side Annabeth could sympathise with, Hazel had no reason for liking Annabeth after she hurt Percy that badly. But it had hurt [i]_a lot_[/i] when Tyson started giving her sad and disappointed looks.

Anyways, now she was sitting with the men from Ithaca, who were crowded by a crackling camp fire by now, someone turning the stake on which their meat cooked every now and then. Three of them were drunk, waltzing around the beach under the stars with each other, and it was the funniest thing Annabeth had seen in approximately… well, since the last time Percy had made her laugh. Before the books of Tartarus.

Gods, it felt like forever…

"You sure you don't want any?" Nikon asked her, holding out the pitcher of wine they'd gotten (somehow).

"No thank you," Annabeth said.

"You don't drink?"

"Mustn't have been a soldier for long, then."

"I have," Annabeth said. "Ten years."

"And you aren't older than eighteen."

"How did that happen?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Annabeth said.

That's when she spotted somebody walking towards them quickly; Odysseus.

Someone went out to push the drunken guys away, into the sea so they wouldn't be seen, and everyone acted natural.

Maybe Athena's verdict on obeying troops wore off after ten years.

"Nikon," he said. "You were a carpenter in Ithaca, weren't you?"

"Yes sir," Nikon said. "A good one, sir."

"I don't doubt it," Odysseus said. "Anybody else? Nobody in the construction or forging business?"

There was a general consent that said 'no'.

"Alright. Come with me, Nikon."

Odysseus met Annabeth's eyes and for a second, they glittered with a nearly boyish excitement. The kind that filled Malcolm's eyes when he found the new best-place-in-the-world to set up ballistas, or when he found a way to isolate a particularly sensitive bronze wire, or when he solved a riddle that'd been on his mind for days.

Annabeth knew what'd happened.

He'd just imagined the design for the Trojan horse.

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS REPLY<strong>

**PS- I was watching the Olympic opening ceremony, so watch out for random comments.**

Percabethforever- Just did

Selenagomez5802- The others are actually trying to talk properly, but Leo's just being Leo (which I like to call Leoing)

**Unknown- I forget too, and I'm too busy watching these huge towers rise in the middle of the Olympic Games' ceremony to check.**

**Guest- Yeah, sorry, it doesn't.**

**Confusedreader- Their ship got attracted to this island where dead people are alive and Troy is being recreated. They think it's Gaia, but they don't know.**

**The idea was for the Four warriors to split up to avoid attracting too much attention- especially Jason who struggles to fight in a Greek style and Tommy who was never taught how.**

**Tommy and Percy= fighting with Troy**

**Annabeth and Jason= Fighting with the other side, Annabeth is with Odysseus**

**Piper= Got mistaken for Helen of Troy**

**Hazel= Working as a stable hand at the Trojan palace**

**Frank= Personal guard for Princess Andromache**

**Quinn= Wandering new Rome**

**Leo= Fixing up the house where Aeneas' father and son live**

**Josie= Her power of sight has been discovered, but that's all you know so far**

**Ella and Tyson= On ship**

**Elizabeth- If I do that, her plan gets destroyed. Wait until the very last page to see what happens of them.**

**Wonderstruck Pen- My fave too**

**Guest- It's not really Troy, it's something Gaia created and attracted them to. Much like she did with the old-time Camp Half-Blood.**

**Becca3- Sorry, not gonna happen for a while.**

**Lover of this fa- Thank you! And yes, I've considered it. Odysseus to me won his cases because he's smart. Also he was loyal to his wife, always nice in this twisted mythology. **

**Leolove- OH I HAVE DEALT WITH IT! Leo for President.**

**Guest- One: be warned that this is very long, but I wanted to answer your Jason/Reyna/Piper question.**

**First things first; EH OH, CANADA GO! Oh my God, the queen just walked in on TV… Anyways, we'll be cheering on the same team during the Olympics, it appears :)**

**Please do let me know, I'll feel all special, having read the books of someone I've talked to and since they'll all be special. I didn't really ever like Jasper. There was never anything there. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't hate them. But meh. **

**I think that it happened too quickly. Jason didn't know who he was yet, I don't see how he could truly know that Piper is the kind of girl he likes or wants. Also I think a lot of the reason why that relationship would happen if it did is because he'd feel guilty about her memories being false. –OMG JK ROWLING IS IN THE OLYMPIC OPPENING CEREMONY SHE IS MY FAVOURITE PERSON EVER, sorry- Also it seemed to revolve around looks a lot because, quite simply, they didn't know each other. You can't blame them for that, it was three days of only seeing each other under serious –VOLDEMORT, RUN!- pressure and that's not always how people are -DIE VOLDEMORT- in their everyday lives. You need to appreciate them when they're being plain and boring them too. **

**Jeyna. **

**I don't have a reason, I don't know what they're actually like. But in my head cannon, they'd have gotten to know each other very well because of their jobs as praetor. They'd be friends before girlfriend/boyfriend. And I think the fact that Reyna would then have to open her heart and start being fond of him and so forth would mean a lot to both of them and anybody otherwise involved considering she's a hard person. **

** They're also both very similar when you think about it. They're under a lot of pressure, one way or another; and they both want the best for Rome, and Camp Jupiter is home for them in a way that it isn't often: it's the only home Jason knows, and Reyna was probably exceedingly traumatised and mistrusting when she stumbled on New Rome after her pirate ship experience and being separated from Hylla, and she must've been so relieved to find safety and comfort and a home in general. **

** Jason also seems to have the calming effect that I think she needs to function on a day-to-day basis. It was visible in Son of Neptune that she –MR BEAN IS THERE, okay I'm back- NO THE DOCTOR IS THERE, okay not back, yes I am- needed help to manage all of the pressure. Especially at Senate meetings, since people trust and listen to Jason and he's a good speaker, I think that they'd balance each other out that way. Especially since Reyna is about a million times more scary and harsh than Jason is.**

**(I apologise that your reply is the one full of these interruptions, but I was replying while exciting things were happening on TV).**

** Percabethforever- Achilles is already dead in this story, but yes, if he was, he'd have to be.**


	84. LVI Annabeth

**Okay; so it's not that I haven't posted because I was sick or because I forgot… it's cause I just never got around to it. I'm mucho sorry, guys! **

**Part of it is that I was in the Wilderness for all of last week. I came back exhausted because being a young leader for a bunch of brownies with tiny bladders is actually more exhausting than you might think. I've been tired nearly all week. Also a book idea came to me, so I'm at page 60 now (...) and that took my time and brain. **

**Either way; there's more than this to come today. **

**Disclaimer: Me no own!**

**Dedication: The user who told me that the Roman numeral for 50 was not XXXXX but L. Thank you!**

* * *

><p>LVI<p>

Annabeth

Annabeth was on the beach. A woman wearing a long black cloak with parts that glittered was walking towards her.

Annabeth drew her sword.

"Who are you?" Annabeth asked. She looked left and right. There wasn't even a guardian fire lit in any of the camps, no guards- that wasn't normal.

"Leave this battlefield, now." She said.

"You have no right to demand things from me, child." She said. "I don't make or take demands. I take what is already there." Her voice was calm, and it came out like classical music, soft and gentle like a whisper, but also very deep.

"Who are you?" Annabeth asked.

The woman came closer and for some reason Annabeth could see her face in the dark. Clue number one of godly nature.

Actually, Annabeth couldn't see her 'face' so to speak. She wore a black velvet Venice mask with intricate silver piping and diamond studs that covered half her face. Her skin was pale in the moonlight and her lips were thin. Her hair was held back tightly.

"Who do you think I am?"

"One does not ask questions if he knows the answer." Annabeth said.

"You can't keep yourself calm by saying wisdom around me. I work with my own wisdom. I work with my own everything."

"Also a policy not to answer questions, apparently." Annabeth said.

The woman's lips curled into a smile.

"Think. Who would come to see you now? Who would want to tempt you out of your sorrows now? Who would come talk to you in the middle of the night? Who knows the inside of your angsty little blond head? Who knows what that little broken heart is feeling?"

_Nemesis, _Annabeth's brain thought.

"Mmm," the goddess said. "You've had a hard life, Annabeth. From your father's awkwardness to your friend betraying your camp to this. You would think that the gods would give peace to those who deserve it. You would think that if all Cinderella had to do to get her happily ever after was put on a shoe, you would have earned yours by now.

Quite unfair, isn't it? It makes you angry aren't you?"

"No. It hasn't made me angry."

"It's made you a liar, then." Nemesis smiled again. "Don't lie to me. I know what you think. I know that Hera is your least favourite Olympian and of course now her case isn't any better."

"She's not evil." Annabeth said. "She did what she had to do."

"Well so did you. And how do you think everyone sees you?"

Annabeth took a deep breath and pushed away all her thoughts (evil, cold, hellhound, arrogant, mean, sharp). She reasoned with herself. Keep cool. An angry enemy makes mistakes. Mistakes were bad around the goddess of revenge.

"Unfair. Again. Who is that old cow to give you literal crud for a year of your short heroin life and then ask you for a favour that will break apart your future, present and erase your past?" Nemesis said. Annabeth felt nauseous. "She's a pretentious hellhound, that's what. She deserves a piece of her own medicine, doesn't she?"

"You're asking me to take vengeance on Hera? No. Of course not! It isn't wise! Revenge isn't the answer."

"But it is my question. Your answer is either yes or no." Nemesis said.

"What can _I _do to a goddess, anyways?" Annabeth asked. She was curious for the sake of curiosity this time.

"Loads of things. It depends on your approach."

"My approach?" Annabeth prompted to keep going.

"Exactly. Embarrassment is very sought out. Never forgotten, very public, satisfying, and it creates those fifteen seconds of laughter that adds your two day lifespan- and gods know that you are going to need it, child."

Annabeth picked up two things. 1) Fifteen seconds of laughter=two days of life was probably not scientifically true, though laughter worked wonders on the body and 2) she was going to need something to help her lifespan soon? Styx.

"Pardon?" Annabeth asked.

"Of course if it's deeper in your blood," Nemesis continued. "You might want something a bit harsher. Personal injury or loss of property, having your enemy walk into a casino and walk out with empty pockets, have them break their two legs while playing their favourite sport... But if you're really bitter… If you're positively furious… Well, survivor's guilt is absolutely atrocious."

Annabeth choked. "Like, kill their family?"

"Yes," Nemesis said as if Annabeth had asked if she liked cookies or something similar. "Or friends. Although we always feel more responsible for our family, especially the second they get hurt."

Annabeth's blood froze. "You… My little brother…"

Matthew's face flashed across her eyes. She'd lived in San Francisco for a short time, but she fell in love with her two little brothers. On their birthday party she'd locked herself in her room (which seemed like the wisest approach) with a stack of books and some blueprints her father had brought home for her one day, via a college friend. When she'd come out she'd been attacked by Nerf bullets, but she'd managed to knock them all out of the air. Matthew was sure that she was a ninja.

He was such an innocent and cute little boy, no matter how macho he said he was. Annabeth had nightmares of seeing him in a prison cell of Gaia's, scared and blind and confused and lost. She could only pray that Thalia would reach out, the way she'd done a million times.

"Did you do that…?" She managed to get out.

"Do what?"

"My little brother… My baby brother's a captive of Gaia right now…" Annabeth's stomach sank. "Did someone ask for revenge on me? Percy? Hazel? Octavian? Joan?" She asked trying to think of all the people who currently had problems with her. The list was longer than ever.

"Octavian is dead." Nemesis said. "That was an act of pure revenge."

"_What?" _Annabeth asked.

"Joan is too busy to command revenge on you. Hazel may be bitter but she would not dare take action, she has seen revenge firsthand. Perseus Jackson is angry with you, confused, hurt, shocked-"

"Yes, I know." Annabeth pressed. She didn't need to hear it.

"But he would not hurt your family." Nemesis finished. "I'm afraid that your brother really is a captive of Gaia."

_Splendid. I wonder if Dad's going to kill me for this. I'd kill me for that. If not, Bobby will. God, they must be terrified too… _

Annabeth chewed on her lip.

"Angry?" Nemesis asked.

"No, stop it. Revenge isn't wise. I won't do it." I'll accomplish my plan."

Nemesis clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "You'll die before you succeed. You don't understand…"

"I think I do," Annabeth said. "Don't you try putting limits on me. That's what everyone's been doing lately. Don't do this, don't do that, don't try that, fall into this line, follow him, follow her, hush up your plans."

"When I spoke of your little angsty blond head, I hadn't thought it was that deep."

Annabeth's stomach was filled with boiling anger and her thoughts turned into harsh plans.

No- she couldn't- what-

"No, stop! You're a goddess, and the war is coming! What are you doing?" Annabeth said. "Aren't you on Olympus' side?"

"I'm on nobody's side, dear. I'm on the side of the mistreated and angry. Whichever party they fight for." Nemesis said. "The minor gods were angry last time. I was on their side. Now you are angry."

Annabeth swallowed.

"Don't you hate hiding your plan?" Nemesis asked.

"Don't try to flair my pride." Annabeth said. "I'm bigger than my fatal flaw. I… I know I am. I'm a daughter of Athena. My plan is more important right now and not just for me; for the world. For… for Percy."

Nemesis threw up her hands in frustration, which startled Annabeth.

"You're being played. You're playing by the rules of someone else's game, daughter of wisdom. You're going counter current to what the fates have planned. You don't understand what that commitment means." Nemesis said.

She waved her hand. The long drooping black sleeve cut across the air and blurred Annabeth's vision.

She saw flashes of… of her and Percy.

At Camp, on quests, in New York. Some of them were big moments; like when she was following Clarisse who was dragging him to the girl's bathroom, the fight with the Colchis bulls, holding the sky, holding hands in the labyrinth when they found the entrance during the Scorpion game…

Some of them were mundane moments. Training in the sword arena with the children of Athena sitting in the bleachers and cheering; canoeing last summer as the water nymphs splashed Annabeth (maybe in jealousy, maybe Percy had asked; she didn't know); his head on his knees as she read and he took another one of his curse-induced power naps; running down Half-Blood hill to go home on the last day of camp; picking strawberries with a bunch of Hermes campers because he had gotten in trouble with Mr D (and the Hermes kids were always in trouble with Mr D); on the climbing wall with Grover… 

The wild blur froze on one scene. She recognised the setting for a dream she'd had; _the _dream, as she mentally called it. The one that'd made her break up with him.

An icy sea, full of icebergs with sizes ranging from small, to big, to Titanic-sized. Even the water looked freezing, a steely grey colour. Her feet were on something cold; one of the icebergs, and she was falling backwards.

Percy's hand closed around her forearm, saving her, and lifted her up so she was straight. She was leaning dangerously backwards, at a Tower of Pisa angle. The ground under her feet was bobbing up and down, and cracking.

"Percy, the ice isn't solid or big enough for the both of us," she said. "It's cracking, it'll break." The sea churned around them, waves that looked stronger than ever.

"I can swim." He said. "Stay here and I'll just-"

"This is Khione's domain, not Poseidon's, not yours! You can't do anything! Khione will kill you! She hates us all, you can't go in there." Annabeth said. "Percy, you're powerless here."

"Well then you're staying out of her domain too," Percy said. He pulled her further onto the little isle, and let go of her arm, and fell backwards, disappearing under the water.

She saw she and Percy in New York, on the scooter, zooming around the city during the Titan war.

Percy held her up when she got stabbed in the shoulder by Ethan.

She and Percy were facing all the monsters they'd ever killed in Tartarus.

They were sleeping in the Argo II, snuggled up, her head on his chest.

They were kids again, sneaking around the Princess Andromeda.

At his parents' apartment, watching a movie with the language settings turned to German so that they had an excuse for not listening to it.

It froze on another memory.

Chiron's things were all packed and he looked in a rush.

"Stay with Percy, child," Chiron told her. "Keep him safe. The prophecy- remember it!"

Annabeth was trying not to cry because this was pretty much one of the worst days of her life and she hadn't even spoken with Mr D yet, "I- I will."

"Um…" Percy said. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about?"

Nobody answered.

"Right," he muttered. "Just checking."

"Chiron," Annabeth spoke up to confirm what her brain had guessed, "You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were needed to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp-"

Chiron didn't answer, he interrupted her. "Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger," he insisted. "Swear upon the River Styx."

"I- I swear it upon the River Styx." Annabeth said.

He was falling into the icy ocean.

He was drowning.

_Falling from ice the son of Neptune shall-_

"Annabeth!" Someone yelled.

Her eyes shot open and she saw Odysseus and a few of the other men from Ithaca. He'd shaken her away.

"What- where..?"

"Everyone was sleeping under the stars when I returned," Odysseus said. "You were shaking and fighting in your sleep. You said a name over and over. You nearly gave Nikon a black eye."

Annabeth sat up groggily. She felt feverish and sick and weak. "I'm sorry, it's a thing I do, a lot of demigods have that…"

The men of Ithaca had been told that Annabeth was a demigod.

"We get horrible dreams." She said. "I'm sorry."

"No need. We just thought you were sick or something. Probably Nikon's food," a really entertaining man named Aristeas said.

"No, I'm fine," she said rubbing her eyes. Her hand was damp with one of two things; sweat or tears. Lovely. "Just… what was the name?"

"Percy," someone filled in after a while. They knew it was a man's name. She was in for it.

"Mmm," Annabeth said weakly. "I thought so."

He gave her more headaches when he wasn't her boyfriend than when he was. And it was a lot more rewarding when he was. It never ended, did it? If she was with him; he wasn't safe. If she wasn't with him; everyone hated her.

Odysseus looked at her sceptically.

"Come with me," he said giving her a hand to help her up. She took it gratefully and they walked along the beach. She ignored the ocean.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked. "Because you couldn't even fool Menelaus with the face you have right now."

"Yes," Annabeth said. "I… I think so."

No. She wasn't. But she hadn't been for a while, so that was fine.

They walked for a while.

"If you don't mind me asking," he said. "Who is Percy?"

Annabeth sighed. "He was my boyfriend." She said. "Sweetheart," she corrected her terms to something that he'd understand. "He… I was warned that he was in danger. A prophecy. The counsel of a goddess. A war building up. Old powers awakening, the reason we're in Troy in the first place. It's… it's complicated, but I have to make him despise me."

Odysseus didn't say anything.

"And he doesn't know. He just thinks that I hate him now. So does everyone else. All except one of my sisters." Annabeth said. "He's hurt and angry and confused, and he feels bitter towards me. And I can't help but still…" _Love him. Still love him. I can't help but still love him because he's Percy and he's had that effect on me since I'm fourteen. I can't help it because he is a Seaweed brain, he is brave, loyal dammit, friendly, funny, and he was _my _Seaweed Brain. I know that love isn't a word to throw around when you're just seventeen, but I will throw it around because I do. I love him._

They walked a little more. It didn't feel better to confess everything to someone (unless that someone were Percy, but she couldn't do that to him and ruin his chance of surviving this war). It didn't get it off her chest. And even if it did, there was a handprint on her heart.

"That is a plan worthy of Athena," Odysseus finally said.

"I suppose," Annabeth said, passing the elements of a good plan through her mind. "But the thing is, I don't want to be worthy of Athena. I want to be worthy of him."

"You're worthy of any _god _if you're willing to sacrifice that much for someone you love. He might not know him, but you are the best he could do." Odysseus said. "You're worthy of many things. Your mother must be very proud."

Nobody moved for a while, they just looked at the ocean until Annabeth said; "He's a son of Poseidon," to break the silence.

"Oh," Odysseus grimaced. "Then she's probably not as proud as she could be."

Annabeth laughed, and he soon joined her. The sky thundered.

"Oh, mother didn't like that." Annabeth said, getting serious for a second. Their faces stayed straight for about ten seconds. Annabeth felt like she'd just gotten world's best uncle by meeting Odysseus.

"She did try to separate us once," Annabeth said finally. "She never approved of him. I suppose that's one problem less for her."

She was glad it was dark. That way she didn't have to see the colour of the ocean. That way she didn't have to see the colour of his eyes.

"You, Annabeth, are a remarkable person." Odysseus said finally.

"Pardon?" Annabeth said, looking up at him, confused. "Why are you saying that?"

"Because I know you're hurt. When you're not talking about strategy or war, your eyes hurt. I've met your mother, and I know that grey eyes don't do that naturally." Odysseus said. "I've met soldiers twice your age and twice your size that would curl up and lay there when they're hurt. Like a wounded animal, dragging their leg behind them and whining. But you… you keep going and going, from what I understand and see. It takes intelligence in life, but you can't hatch plans without sacrifice and dedication.

Also; I don't think many people have told you that recently."

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS<strong>

New rule today: I copy your comment above my reply so you know which guest or which comment I'm talking about. Let me know if it clears something up.

**Penny pie-**_Love ur chapters but i'm also a percabeth person so plz make them together or something like Percy over hears annabeth saying the plan about her and Percy and his fatal flaw_

No, because if that happened, Percy's fatal flaw would flare up, and everything that they'd been through emotionally and mentally would be for nothing.

**Le mysterious reviewer-** _Please update faster! _  
>I'm dying to know what's gonna happen between Percy and annabeth :'(<br>Y U NO put them together again?  
>Your chapters are AMAZING btw.<br>They're so...creative and funny xD much better than the other MoA fanfics I've read.  
>HecateA, FTW (Y)<br>Le mysterious reviewer :3_

Me gusta

**Guest-** _How many chapters are you gonna post in total?_

That, I don't know

**Talati789**- _Hey, Great fanfic! i started reading from beggining at sunday, im just finishing now... Bytheway, i found quite a few referances and i could help but laugh and think if you actually ment it...  
>the obivious ones:<br>J. ,  
>Hogwarts hoody,<br>Darth vader,  
>and Voldemort.<br>ones i wanna ask about:  
>cedric? coincidence or got it from diggory?<br>Gaius? meant from 'Merlin' or have you never seen that?  
>Thanks for a brill fanfic to make my summer :D<br>only problem is, i always get confused 'cos after getting used to this story, MoA will be a BIG change XD_

I've never watched Merlin, Gaius is just a Latin name that was very common way back then. The Harry Potter stuff just couldn't stay out of it, and Darth Vadder marched in and used his theme song and the force to get into my story. Cedric isn't a reference to Mr Diggory, my second favourite Hufflepuff, it's just a Civil War era name that I like. Thanks for reading!

**Guest**- _Dont get me wrong, your story is great, but it seems like its takin a looooooooooong time to get to rome plus its lakin a bit of action recently. Still a really awesome story though!_

Yeah I know, and I feel bad about that, but things need to be said for later events, to tie up plotlines. Things are about to change.

**Jake**- _Dude youre just like the director of the lightning thief movie. Changing everything and missing some parts. And also why did you add new characters that aren't part of the seven? I mean the prophecy said SEVEN demigods shall answer the call. Not ELEVEN demigods. Can you please change that? Cuz the story is getting way off track. It's like another story combined into another one. It's like nobody cares about defeating Gaia. And also please put a time limit for them. Like two weeks until Gaia destroys world. Something like that. Or else this story is just going to end up like a piece o shit. It's like a never ending story about battling wars that have nothing to do with Gaia. It's completely insane!_

I didn't technically change everything. I mean, Grover is still shy and Annabeth is blonde and Camp Half-Blood is still a friendly place.

Yes, the prophecy calls for SEVEN demigods not my TEN demigods. So this should just be an indication to people that three of these demigods won't be fighting Gaia, but doing something completely different. Don't worry: I AM respecting the seven half-bloods that RR outlined, even if they don't know it yet.

They do care about destroying Gaia. Their boat got sucked towards Troy and they're trying to get out of Troy so they can continue. As for the timeline: good idea. I shall.

Please don't swear in my reviews. I don't swear in my story so that younger readers can enjoy it.

Also, they will battle Gaia. It's outlined in my mind. They'll get to it in 3/4 chapters: tops. Troy is being wrapped up as we speak.

**Guest -**_why havent you update yet? my birthday is friday and i want you to update by then!_

Is your birthday TODAY or last Friday? Because if so- AHHH I MISSED YOUR BIRTHDAY! If it's today: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

**Guest ****-**_You're story is great and I like where it is heading but I am a Percabeth chick and this story isn't going to be perfect unroll thy are back together singer on with the story because I can't wait for the next chapter! The anticipation is killing me (not literally) !_

Last chapter. Pinky promise you'll wait until then and be satisfied.

**Perseus48** -_Good story and complete..._

The sad thing: It's not complete yet.

**Guest ****-**_Nice chapter, although Greek fire was in fact developed by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire_

First time I hear that. Thanks, now I'll go to bed smarter!

**Percabeth2118 ****-**_OMG this is really good I couldn't stop reading this ...I've been up the past 3 days until 4am reading this... screw u 4 being such a good writer J.K. but seriously keep this up, it's really good. :D_

:DDDDDDDDDD

**Ryan McCann- **I can't post any faster than I already am. If I force myself to write, it won't be any good. I'm writing at a very good pace already, at least it's good for me.

Also Troy is being wrapped up.

I'll figure out my own ways to add humour, but your request for it is appreciated.

Their fatal flaws will come out, and they will know each other well. I like your idea of revealing them to each other. It's funny; you and I found the same fatal flaw for Jason! I had guilt for Leo and pride for Piper; like, she's too prideful to use the powers she does have; her charms and looks.

**lol **-_what are your plans for percy and annabeth as far as breakups, arguments,etc.?  
>Also, when do you think the groups will meet back up?<br>Those are only two questions i wanted to ask.  
>Now for the real purpose of this writing space I would like to say that your fanfiction for Mark of Athena is great.<br>I love how you include lots of emotion and different pov's so that we as readers get to find out how each person feels about different situations.  
>The povs are for almost everyone. It doesn't just focus on like two or three specific people. GREAT JOB !<br>I LOVE IT ! :)_

Well, they've broken up. I can't tell you more than that because of SPOILERS.

The Greeks and the Romans: very soon.

Gaia's giants and the Argo II crew: Soon.

Thank you! I'm glad you like it!

**nobody** -_good but its geae geae_

It can technically be written both ways. I've tried to write it 'Gaea', but maybe because all _my _mythology books write it that way, or maybe because I'm French and it makes more sense in my brain, I can't. I always end up writing it 'Gaia' anyways. :( Pet peeves of HecateA

**Lover of this fa** -_Awesome chapter! :) I appreciate that you update in the summer too.. Thanks for being such a great author! As for critical construction, besides a few spelling errors and I think Clarisse's last name was spelled wrong, it was great!_

Okay, thanks, I'll watch my spelling of Larue now.

**Princessdemon****-** _Great story I hope u get to finishing it soon and btw r u from British Colombia or something cos u used some British spelling anyways it's great_

All of Canada uses the British spelling. Not just British Columbia- which has nothing to do with Great Britain except for the colonisation.

Colour. Armour. Also I'm French, so it clicks in my head because 'colour' is 'couleur'.

**Guest ****-**_OMG THAT WAS AWESOME! Thank u so much for puttin that part where jason told annabeth that he saw percy and told her he's fine becuz that means there's still hope! Also I loved the way u made andromache not seem stuck up like helen or the queen that was pure genius! And how u made piper stand up for tommy instead of goin along in character so she wouldn't seem out of place was brilliant. But I do hav one question. What's goin on with quinn and josie? I mean we got one chap from josie and then we don't know what the heck happened to her and wats goin to happen with quinn? Is she goin to keep wanderin the streets,get help,meet hazel somewhere,or wat? Other than that I luv it. Oh! I almost forgot can we pretty please hav a chap from nyssa's PoV cuz I really want to see wat she feelin about malcom and the camp thing and also can we hav one from tyson like I'm pretty sure he's worried wats happened to the rest of them since they haven't come back yet anyways don't give up on this story and keep writing!_

Quinn has a chapter coming up (like, posted today…) and Josie is kind of doing her own random thing. You'll see. Quinn will find her.

Nyssa and Malcolm… Well, okay, I'll take a commission.

I don't do PoV's of Tyson. I don't trust myself to represent him exactly right.

**If I missed you I apologise! **

**Hec**


	85. LVII Piper, Frank, Leo, Camp HalfBlood

LVII

Piper

She was freaking out. She was much certainly going to _explode. _

The sun set, marking her first night in Troy, and so far it wasn't going very well.

She seemed to have ticked off half the royal family, including Paris who seemed to be running this show.

She couldn't have time alone to think or make a plan or even escape and get help (especially help in the form of Frank). She wasn't armed, and now she didn't have the ring- her one magical item. And the worst of the worst, Tommy was in prison and he was probably going to get executed shortly from the way dinner conversation had gone.

She was getting her hair brushed out by one of the flock members, which was how she'd come to think of Helen's handmaids. It was a bit mean, but Piper couldn't help it. It was like they expected her not to be able to do anything. Brushing her hair for her- really?

She winded her hands into her dress to keep them from grabbing the hairbrush from Elissa, doing it herself, and totally blowing her already frail cover. She didn't want to be touched right now, she didn't want her hair touched, she didn't want people close. Nobody except for Tommy. Her nerves, her lack of invisibility-ring, and her anger were making her really anxious to get up and do something. She _had _to.

"Elissa?" She asked.

"Yes Milady?" The young girl answered.

"Thank you for helping me in the throne room earlier. I had a… a moment of confusion."

"Not at all, Milady. Would you like me to get you some water? A healer?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you, it has passed." Piper said.

Elissa twisted her hair into a carefully messy bun, held together with pins tipped off with pearls.

"There you go, Milady. You look magnificent."

Piper nodded emptily. She didn't _feel _magnificent and that was the important part, wasn't it?

"Shall I do anything else for you before retiring for the night, Milady?"

"Yes," Piper said. "Actually."

She turned around and knelt in front of Elissa, and crouched to look her in the face. She was so young, Lacy and Hazel's age. Those were two people she'd strive to protect. It was impossibly easy for Piper to imagine braces, pigtails, gold eyes and mounds of curls on Elissa, whose brown hair fell in limp waves to her waist and she had big brown eyes.

"This is very important," Piper said. "And very secret. Can you keep a secret without it possibly hurting you?"

"Of course, Milady."

"Will it hurt your job?" Piper asked.

"Of course not, Milady. My job is to obey to you." Elissa said.

"Alright," Piper said. "If Paris had something very, very valuable that he didn't want anyone to find, where would he hide it?"

Frank

Andromache dismissed him a little before dinner.

He immediately went down to the stables.

When King Priam had mentioned that there was a new stable girl that was a 'very good addition to the palace', Frank had immediately thought of Hazel. She liked horses, she was amazing with them. And of course since the gods were always pulling stunts like that, thinking they were funny.

He asked for quick directions, "just to see" and went down about a gazillion flights of stairs and down twenty million hallways. He could've gone to find Piper, true. But he had a feeling that if she was really Helen of Troy for now, a lowly guard would not get to talk to her in private, and it'd look really suspicious. So until he saw a golden opportunity, she was on her own. Hazel, on the other hand, might get kicked off the palace grounds for the night. And if she went into Troy, he had big, big chances of losing her.

If it was her that was there after all. It'd be really awkward if it was actually a thirty year old man.

He opened the stable door and someone who was rubbing a horse down jumped and turned around to face him.

"Frank!" Hazel said. Her gold eyes looked relieved to see him and she tackled him with a hug.

"Hey," he said. He didn't remember hugs feeling this good, but he was really relieved to see her, and she must be too. "Thank the gods you're here, I was really worried about you." Frank said.

"I couldn't leave," Hazel said. "The king knows I'm here so if I run away I don't know if I'd get in trouble… I don't even know if going into Troy is a good idea."

"It probably isn't," he said. "Not at this hour. They think I'm a guard." Frank said.

"They think I work in the stables."

"Wait until you hear what they think _Piper _is."

"She's here too?" Hazel asked. "Is there anybody else in the palace? Are we all here? Wait- who is she?"

"Helen of Troy." Frank said. He had to grin when he saw her face.

"But that's impossible!" Hazel said. "How did that happen? Are they, like, twins? Where's the real Helen?"

"I don't know," he said before she could demand the answer to another question. "She just was. Also Tommy's in the palace."

"What's he doing?" Hazel said. "Is he, like, Paris?"

Always the optimistic romantic, she was.

"Being a prisoner." He said.

"Oh," Hazel's face fell. "What did he do? What happened to him?"

"I don't know. He did something that Trojans don't do and now they think that he's some kind of barbaric infiltrator and the only reason he didn't get killed right away was because Piper spoke up for him and talked strategy."

"Wow," Hazel blinked. "Oh gods, we've got to help him!"

"We can't," Frank said.

"Why not?" Hazel asked crossing her arms.

"Are you armed?" Frank asked. "Do we know what the inside of the palace is like? Do we have a plan? Do we have the strength to fight off armed and trained guards? Do we know how to get him out of a holding cell?"

Hazel pursed her lips. "But we can't just leave him there."

"Piper was there," Frank said. "She's in a really good position right now. Plus if you'd have seen her eyes… She had a plan. She was freaking out, but she had a plan. She knows I'm there, so if she needs help she'll ask."

She nodded. "They really are two pieces of one soul, Piper and Tommy, aren't they?"

Frank thought for a second. "I don't know. I think so."

"It's romantic," Hazel said.

"Yeah, it's great." Frank said a little bitterly.

"What are _we _going to do, though?" Hazel asked.

For a second he was caught off guard because he thought she was talking about souls, but then he realised that she was thinking of their plan for the moment.

"We can spend the night here," Frank said. "Just wait it out until morning. I'll try and find Piper, but the Princess I'm guarding doesn't like her much. Well, doesn't like Helen."

"Who is she?" Hazel said.

She finished rubbing down her horse and she had Frank do a couple of mundane things that were impossible to screw up, like rake the hay out of the main passage, and then they sat down in the back room on a pile of hay and Frank explained about Andromache. He left out the part where he'd spilled the beans about her, though.

He didn't want her to know that. If she was dying, he didn't want to give her an extra reason to want to stay, and to have it hurt when she'd die.

She also seemed quite secretive. She just mentioned that she'd been walking around and she'd found the king unconscient on the ground.

"I think he has epilepsy," Hazel said. "It looked like a seizure. Also he said that it was coming because he was old, and my mom had a friend who had the exact same-"

He nearly expected it when she passed out, and Frank grabbed her so that she wouldn't fall, one arm behind her back, one holding her hand.

He expected to get sucked into a vision again, but no. Not this time. When Ella had been chirping about 'sharing', it was apparently only eligible if she wasn't… dying…

Hazel shook slightly. Her head was thrown backwards and forwards, nearly like a birds. Her limbs shook. He just held on to her and tried to think positive and karmatic thoughts, as if that would help, hoping that the spell would pass soon and that she wasn't hurting.

"I knew it," a voice said.

Frank looked up and saw King Priam, Paris standing by the door looking unimpressed.

"Pardon, my Lord?" Frank said. Hazel arched her back and her head snapped so fast Frank got worried.

"She spoke to me of an ill and dying friend," Priam said. "I knew it was her."

Frank didn't say anything.

"Who are you?" Priam asked.

"A friend," Frank said. He was locking himself up in the friend zone.

"Father, we have business to attend to. May I suggest we move on to my study? This situation is clearly under control."

Frank had to bite his tongue. He wished he had Piper right there to tell Paris off. No. Things were now okay.

"Will you watch her?" Priam asked. His eyebrows were scrunched up. "Take care of her?"

He nearly didn't answer.

"I always have," Frank said. The King of Troy nodded and then they left.

Hazel nearly threw herself out of his arms and against the hard floor, but Frank grabbed her. He didn't want her to hit her head and get a concussion.

Frank was jealous. What Hazel had said about Tommy and Piper was probably true. There they were, constantly connected and reunited by the universe even if they lived on different continents or died. But when he tried to connect with a girl who was perfect, she started dying on him.

Piper

"I don't want you to come with me," Piper told Elissa. "He'd have your head if we were found."

"But you, Milady…"

"Shh," Piper said. Elissa listened. "I'll be alright. You go back to wherever you're meant to be at this time."

"That's wherever you require me, Milady. I can watch out for you, which would be alright. I could do that, honest Milady!"

Piper thought on it for a second.

"Alright. Just this one time. But if he comes, say so, and run."

She didn't trust Paris or what he'd do to Elissa or any other servant if they went against him. Especially not Elissa; Piper liked her a lot.

She snuck into the study.

It was pretty empty, which didn't surprise Piper. Scrolls, papyrus and tablets were here and there around the room, on low tables surrounded by couches or on shelves. A few ancient books called 'codex' were there too, but they collected dust.

Nobody was there.

There were hand drawn maps on the walls. A collection of old instruments were lined against the wall- also dusty. Paris had nothing but his blue eyes, didn't he?

Plants grew in pots and there was a dark wooden desk with carvings of what Piper presumed were muses in Ancient gowns sitting on the corners.

She rummaged around the room forever, digging through the obvious places first, like the desk's drawers and under the piles of books.

She started off assuming that Paris worked with the FAS filing system- first available surface. That wasn't true. She was getting so desperate that she rummaged in the plant's dirt.

The ring didn't turn invisible when it wasn't on someone for a long time, did it? She and Tommy hadn't really figured out all of the magic item's quirks yet. If so, this was hopeless.

She stopped for a second, and looked at the room. There was a scene from The King of Sparta in a room very much like this. Maybe she just thought of Dad because she was alone and she wanted someone to help her. She remembered it was a murder scene- why made her feel loads better. The guy who played her father as a child was hidden in a secret closet, behind a bookshelf and his father got murdered right in the very room. That was supposed to be why the king of Sparta was a vicious ruler- PTSD or something like that.

Secret closet…

Oh God, she was dumb.

She ran back to the desk, nearly tripping on her dress, and ducked under it, feeling the top part for bumps or a lock or _something. _

Awesomely enough, she got it. She reached for one of the pearl-tipped pins in her hair and used it to pick a lock. It scared her a bit how good she'd gotten at that.

A trap door opened and the chain fell right on her face. She closed her hand around it and hid it inside her dress, got out from under the desk, and pushed the trap door back to a close. She put the pin back in her hair; put the chair back to its place and presto. It was like it'd never happened.

She hurried back to the door but froze when she heard talking. Holly- it was Paris and Priam and some deep-voiced man that evoked the face of the head guard in Piper's mind. Uh oh.

"After breakfast. Bring him to the throne room. We will interrogate him one more time." Priam said. Paris clucked his tongue annoyed.

"Make sure that an executioner is there because I don't have the patience to do this a third time." Paris said.

That would've alarmed her a lot more, but she had the ring now. It made her feel a lot better. She could make it work. She could save Tommy, grab Frank, and get the heck out of here.

The door swung open, nearly hitting Piper. Priam and a guard were walking down the corridor in the opposite direction, but Paris was right there staring at her. Her heart froze and ran up her throat and out of the room.

"What are you doing in here?" He said strictly. "You said you were going to rest."

"I did," Piper said. "That's right, you're right, I did…"

"You know I don't like you being in here," he scowled.

_Can Helen even read any of the things in here? Probably not. Oh, what the frigg, Ancient Greece…_

"I know, but I… I…"

She was panicking and the only thing she could think of doing was what she did next. Smash her lips against his.

He was obviously surprised, and she hoped that she wasn't obviously disgusted. It was short and about as unsweet as it got, and she pulled back.

"I wanted to say goodnight." She said.

_Oh, so after I do _that _the Greek language returns to me. Thank you, brain. That's totally unappreciated._

"You wanted to say goodnight?"

"Mmm-hmm. I thought I might find you here."

"You…" Paris looked confused. "Are you sure you're feeling quite alright? You have been acting strangely, Helen."

"I'm perfect," Piper said. "But the heat in this room is getting to my head and I am starting a migraine, so I shall retire for the night. Sleep well."

"You too, my love." Paris said. He seemed to have softened up. Too late.

He closed the door of the study and Piper spit in one of the plants lining the hallway.

Okay; she was _never _doing that again. She knew that toothpaste wasn't invented yet, but really? Oh God, that was bad. She would never take any good kisser for granted again. She spit again.

"Milady, have you succeeded?" Elissa asked, running to her. "I tried calling you when I saw them arrive, but they walk _fast."_

"Don't worry Elissa, it's fine. And yes, I've found what I was looking for." Piper said. Her heart was beating, but this time she wasn't scared for Tommy's life or trapped. She was victorious, and excited for what she was about to do.

"You can go home and get a good night's sleep, Elissa. Goodnight." Piper said.

"Milady is mistaken. I don't have a home." She said.

"You… What?"

"I live in the palace. The servant's quarters." Elissa said. "Remember?"

"Right," Piper said uncomfortably. "So… why don't you go home from time to time? I can let you; gladly."

"Milady, I… I don't have a home. Literally. I am orphan. It was good of Lord Priam and Lady Hecuba to let me in the palace." Elissa said. "I was orphaned before the war began. You did not know; I apologise."

"You don't need to apologise for everything," Piper said. "I'm sorry I brought it up. And stop calling me Milady. You're your own person too, you know."

"But Milady- umm, what shall I call you?"

"My name," Piper said. "Please. I'm growing tired of this 'your honour' nonsense."

"Yes… Helen…"

She wished she could tell Elissa her real name. She looked like a really sweet girl.

"Thank you," Piper said. "That's much better. Goodnight, Elissa. Sweet dreams."

"Sweet dreams too, Helen." Elissa said, bowing.

Okay. Piper would work on bowing the next day.

_ After _she broke her boyfriend out of jail.

Leo

So he spent the afternoon with Anchises and Ascianus. Tools were easy to find- apparently the guy who'd lived in this place (and died in it) had been a retired carpenter. Spare wood and nails was harder to find, but Leo was a decent scavenger and shoplifter when he wanted to be.

He stopped working when Anchises went into story-telling mode. He didn't want Ascianus, who was a good kid, to miss his bedtime story, and so he sat down on one of the chairs he'd solidified and listened to the old man tell his story.

It was a myth he'd heard once already. Piper had told him about it. That said he hadn't listened to Piper, because when did he ever do that?

Anyways, from what Leo gathered: it was about this guy called Pygmalion who'd probably gotten beaten up as a child because of his name. And he was basically _that _kid in your class that can do anything from intelligence-related stuff like math and history to sporty stuff like gym, and artistic things like dance and music. Also _that _kid is polite, responsible, respectful, he never talks when the teacher's talking, he listens in class, takes notes yet he is still everyone's friend. Everyone knows a _that_ kid_. _

Except this guy was especially amazing at sculpting. Anyways, Pygmalion grows up and he becomes a successful merchant. He's fair and people come to him for advice and for problem-solving. His only problem was that he couldn't find somebody he loved, and that made him really sad.

So since that makes hi, angsty and that all angsty artists do this; he sculpted the perfect woman out of ivory. She was so perfect that he fell in love with her.

And so Aphrodite, being the gushy touchy-feely goddess of love that she is, turns the statue into a real woman. And then they married and had two kids with equally weird names, and they all lived happily ever after.

For some reason that made Leo think of all the awkward couples he knew and how they weren't half as awkward as this one was. Percy and Annabeth's love/hate; Reyna and Jason let's-not-have-feelings-but-I-love-you; Piper and Tommy we're-actually-the-same-soul-cut-into-two…

Then he thought of Frank and Hazel and wondered if they were actually a couple. They were both his friends, but he wasn't quite sure what was going on. The answer was probably no, considering that she was dying.

Then he thought that that made him sad because Hazel was a cool person who did not deserve it, how she was his friend and after his life, Leo did not take friends lightly.

Then he thought that there was probably a Greek myth about that considering that the Greeks had the most pessimistic minds _ever _when it came to storytelling.

Then he thought that if he were born into any mythology other than Greco-Roman, that myth would finish with a way to save Hazel and find her a Prince Charming (Frank would have to do).

Then he thought about what she'd told him about dying.

_Leo, when this is over, Medea and Phineas and Midas all go back to the Underworld. Right now there are millions of empty spots down there, waiting for someone to fill them before things are back to normal. When Gaia falls, they'll fill those slots again themselves, but… But who's going to fill mine?_

Then he thought that she'd have to fill her own slot and therefore die.

Then he thought of Pygmalion and his statue of a girl who replaced a girl he wanted to meet and fall in love with and blah blah blah.

Then he thought of slots.

And replacements.

And things coming to life.

Then he thought that he was a genius.

And that he'd need some clay or marble or ivory.

Camp Half-Blood

"Don't worry Chiron," Gleeson said. "We'll cover this."

"If it gets too bad-" Chiron croaked.

He wasn't even in his wheelchair anymore, he was condemned to bed.

"If it gets too bad," he repeated hazily, "Rally the spirits who can leave and go."

"'Course," Gleeson nodded. "We'll do that. But Mother Earth can't have Camp Half-Blood."

"We'll see, dear satyr." Chiron said.

Gleeson nodded and walked out of the room.

Juniper ran up to him.

"Gleeson, how is he?" She asked anxiously.

"His clock's ticking out," Gleeson said. "The half-bloods leaving added salt to the wound. His immortality fades without Gaia's help when he's not training."

Juniper sighed, holding in green-tinged tears. "Everyone's going at once…"

"Hey, I know Grover's gone, but we can still mount an attack," Hedge said, smashing his fist into his palm. "We are nature spirits! We get bullied around by the humans, but Gaia is _not _going to destroy us!"

They went outside, Juniper following him. Angry as she was, she seemed to be a good person to keep close for this round. More nymphs and satyrs stood there, holding tree-bark shields, dressed in the spare armour that the half-bloods had left behind. Most of them were panicking, if not completely than slightly. Naiads were resisting the urge to jump back in the canoe lake.

A flock of Oceanids had come out of the ocean wearing coral and pearl studded armour earlier in the morning, armed with tridents and fishing nets that fishermen had cut out and left in the ocean.

All satyrs exploring the country for half-bloods having survived the monster attacks this long were back.

Mellie, bless her beautiful self, had found a few of her _aurae _friends and relatives here and there across the country (which was the first time Camp hosted them since New York had become such an air polluter). They faded in and out of sight, and when they were visible they pinched their noses and chattered on about air quality and how Mellie owed them big time.

Classes of nymphs that Gleeson hadn't seen in a long time were there; Hamadryads, Oreads, Leimoniads, Nereids… It took exceptional effort for nymphs to travel. Some of them couldn't even manage it, such as Juniper. It took an old and powerful nature spirit to be able to move around, or one with a god's blessing, and even then…

There were about 300 of them ready to fight.

Thalia's tree's branches were covered in ice and topped with snow, like something out of a snow globe or Christmas postcard. The Golden Fleece's usual gold radiance was a flickering light, like a light bulb about to burn out.

Past that there was a ring of monsters standing there, waiting, growling, barking, yapping, slithering and throwing taunts at them.

"What's the plan?" An Oceanid asked him.

"We'll…" Gleeson didn't know. 'Kill' didn't work now.

"We'll form a phalanx, and see how well we can defend the Big House. We'll get stampeded eventually, so be ready to retreat your troops to the ocean. You may be useful elsewhere to your Lord Poseidon. Pass it on to the other nymph leaders, will you?"

"Certainly," the Oceanid said, before marching off.

"Glee!" Someone said. He turned around and wind ruffled his hair. A face formed in front of him and then a neck, torso, arms, legs.

"Mellie, you're back!" He said.

"I tried to find the Party Ponies but they were _nowhere to be freaking found,_" she said sounding exasperated. "I'm sorry!"

"Don't worry," he said putting his hand on her shoulder. "We'll be okay. We'll manage this." He pulled her into a hug. "Everything will be okay."

"I sure hope so," Mellie said. "Because, I know I kept this secret from you, but I am a very sore loser."

He smiled. It was no secret. He'd seen her play Ping-Pong. "That's my girl. I've got to go talk to the satyrs because they're still freaking out about Grover. Be safe, if I don't see you again before… before everything."

"Of course I'll be safe, what else?" Mellie said. She kissed him. "Hey- is that Nelly over- oh my gosh!"

She disintegrated into a gentle breeze and went off to see whoever Nelly was.

At that second the temperature dropped about twenty degrees, and the earth started shaking.

He turned to see Thalia's tree, panicked. Suddenly roots burst from the ground, except they were made out of… ice?

They grabbed Thalia's pine tree and squeezed it tight. Everyone's breath became fog. They couldn't do anything against _that. _

The army of monsters out there cheered. Lightning ripped across the sky and angry thunder boomed. The sound of crackling electricity came as all of the borders died at once.

Grass dried up under their feet. The remaining patches moved around and formed a giant sleeping face that let out a sleepwalker's voice.

"It is cute, I find, to see you try to defend your home. But your efforts will be in vain. Charge!"

And chaos began.


	86. LVIII Quinn, Annabeth, TOMMY, Frank

**Okay guys here's the deal: I'm leaving for another city to visit some cousins tomorrow morning, which gives me zero time to publish, really (I think) Anyways, don't expect anything. I will post when I get back; don't worry; chillax.**

**Also I'm writing stories on for the Percy Jackson Ship Week, check out my newest stories for info on that.**

**Disclaimer: Me no own.**

* * *

><p>LVIII<p>

Quinn

Quinn spent the night curled up on the steps near the back (read: barely used) exit of a temple.

People had been killed for less.

In her defence: the temple was to Ares and Zeus. And she figured that even if he didn't know it yet; Ares doubled up as the protector of romans, and she served in a legion dedicated to Jupiter. She was sure that since this… island or city or whatever it technically existed as was obviously a trap Gaia had set up to try and kill a few of the seven, and possibly the extra travelers while she was at it; the real Jupiter and Mars were out there, watching the children of the legion who were in there, and wouldn't mind.

The voices were stronger. She didn't know if the temple made any difference, but they were like blasts from a stereo.

So Quinn prayed. It wasn't new to her; when she'd joined the legion and had learned about the gods, she'd started to try. But prayer wasn't like a 1-800-Miracle, so she'd stopped trying after a while. But she was desperate and alone and cold and scared. Really, really scared. So she prayed to the gods.

To Mars for his protection of warriors, because whatever the voices said; she was a warrior. To Jupiter for his protection of the legion. To Minerva for her general protection and a kind-of 'help me Mom'. She was tempted to throw in a prayer to Somnus to try and get some sleep to deal with Troy's hustle and bustle in the morning. Or to Venus to make sure Jedediah was safe- did Venus cover almost and awkward relationships that'd been screwed up by the girl?

_Really screwed up, _the voices said_._

"Stop praying, Quinn." Someone said. Startled, she jumped to her feet and turned around, her hands automatically grabbing for a sword that wasn't at her side.

A man in royal roman wear was standing there; his face was grim yet handsome and proud. Very, very proud. His hair was cropped close to his head and his eyes were blond, and for a second Quinn thought that she was a seeing an older version of Jason.

"L-Lord J-J-Jupiter," Quinn said hasting herself to a proper bow.

"Stop praying Quinn," he said. "It is driving your mother to insanity."

"My- my mother?"

_No; your cat. You are making a blabbering fool of yourself in front of the greatest of the gods; showing him what a little piece of clueless dirt you are._

"Yes." Lord Jupiter said. "Minerva, is she not?"

_She wishes she were not, you mean. _

"O-of course." Quinn said.

_Oh good; you can remember who your parents are. We know who your father is. We know where he lives, what hurts him most, how to control him…_

"She can't help you. She hears every prayer. She waits for them, even; and grows prouder for every second that you spend a night without asking for help. But she can't help you, Quinn. This is out of her power."

_See? A curse so deep, a girl so poisoned that not even-_ "What do you mean, My Lord?" Quinn asked.

Lord Jupiter's eyebrows furrowed in the same way Jason's did, when he didn't want to admit that something was wrong and bad but had to ask for help.

"Some powers aren't godly."

_Clearly, you're one of those. _

"Such as Gaia." Quinn said. "Gaia is doing this to me?"

"No," Lord Jupiter said. "Not always. The answer is right in front of you. You could see it if you tried. Open your eyes, Quintina," he said using her long name, a Latin name. "You _know _that the mist can still affect demigods."

The voices were quiet. Quiet… At night… Okay; they were definitely suspicious.

"You know that monsters can still stay hidden. As well as… nymphs."

"Nymphs?" Quinn echoed.

"You are a brave soul," Lord Jupiter said. "A fitting Roman."

Quinn blushed.

"If you survive this journey, if you find the part you are to play behind the scenes; I will reward you greatly once you return to the twelfth legion Fulminata." Lord Jupiter promised. "Until then; you must brave the storm."

And Lord Jupiter disappeared.

Annabeth

She stood in the war tent, with kings who had gotten woken and dressed hurriedly and Odysseus, who was alive with energy.

"And this… will work?" Menelaus said dubiously.

"Yes," Odysseus said. "It will."

"It seems like a coward's plan to hide from the enemy and surrender." Menelaus said.

"I will have to follow Annabeth's example and throw knives at you in a few moments," Odysseus said impatiently. "It would be cowardly to throw a good strategy because of being self-conscious about what the enemy thinks. Does it matter? No. Winning this war matters."

Menelaus looked Odysseus for a second and nodded.

"Wise words as usual," he said. "I'm in. I will go into this horse."

Names were thrown around. Kings at first, and then individual soldiers.

"I want to go," Annabeth said.

Piper, Hazel, Frank, Josie, Leo and Quinn were in that city. She was going to have to let Troy burn, because that was history. But she would not let her friends and little sister get reduced to ashes.

"Don't be foolish," Agamemnon said.

"I'm not being foolish," Annabeth said. "I am trained. I am skilled."

"Annabeth goes," Odysseus said.

"Go wake up the men we have named, abandon the camps, set sail," Menelaus ordered to everyone. "We have seven hours until dawn, and less than a day before Troy burns."

Tommy

His dreams were twisting around, purposely making him feel guilty and scared and angry.

He was chasing Schmuel and Lars through a forest. They were five and seven years old only and they squealed and ran and jumped over roots and branches.

Tommy often let them escape further and let them think that they were faster than him longer, so he ran. He caught up to Lars first and scooped him up, making him laugh and laugh and laugh.

"Run Schmuel!" Lars yelled out. Schmuel looked over his shoulder and ran too, but Tommy caught him by the t-shirt and drew him in.

"Okay, okay, that's enough for today."

"Aww, but c'mon," they both complained.

"Dani's making lunch," Tommy said. "That's good food, right there. You'll want to eat while it's hot."

He put them down one at a time so that he could catch them again if they decided to make a run for it. They picked up abandoned piles of firewood they'd left in the woods as they walked back to camp.

It was a simple setup. Eight tents around a campfire, one of them a simple gazebo sheltering a picnic table under which they could eat when it rained, perform first air when it was needed and prepare food.

A water pump with a rusty pail under it was at one corner, and a basin supported by three sticks of wood tied together by rope was there for washing hands. The olive tree offered by Minerva to protect them stood proudly between two tents.

Dani squatted near the fire. Marie-Pierre drew numbers from the Fibonacci sequence in the dirt. Estefanià was tuning her guitar. Symon was climbing a tree with a few of the other young kids cheering him on, and Marie-Pierre yelled over her shoulder that he'd fall and die. They'd get married one day, it was just that neither of them knew it yet.

Schmuel and Lars dropped their wood in the pile and went to join.

"Smells good, Dani." Tommy said, switching to Italian.

"Stop being a suck-up, Rosenberg, you're getting the same portion as everyone else."

"I'm not eating lunch," Tommy said.

"Well then stop trying to be apologised for that," Dani said, looking up. "What do you mean you're not eating? I sweat over this fire and this is what I get? My best friend refuses to eat? I would whip you if I had a whip."

"Funny," Tommy said. "I'm sure it's delicious. But I need some time."

Dani rolled her eyes and flicked her hair over her shoulders, knowing what he meant. "You are very, very lucky that I respect your dream of playing for Germany's football team."

"Yes, I am one lucky guy." Tommy said.

When Dani called out that food was ready and everyone ran to grab a plate and a fork and Symon fell from the tree, Tommy snuck back, grabbed his battered soccer ball and snuck off camp property.

Much, much, much later on a way less happy time where soccer was the last thing on his mind; a bunch of them sat around the picnic table, late at night. Everyone was talking at once.

Tommy leaned on the picnic table, holding his forehead in his hands.

"Okay, stop." Tommy said suddenly. Everyone shut up.

He panicked for a second. He didn't like talking to a lot of people who desperately needed advice and help and directions. He could be a leader, sure. But he was not a very verbal person. He didn't go 'mm-hmm' when things were explained to him, or gasp, or snicker often. People looked to his face for those cues.

But now they needed someone to say something, or else there went lives and dreams and people with futures and powers.

"Look," he said. "I understand what's going through your minds. We lost the protection of Minerva, there are 27 demigods living here, and it is frightening because only eight of us are teenagers."

Just saying it sent a shiver down his spine. Camp had always been home. He had always felt safe before.

"It's my fault," Estefanìa lamented. "I was the one guarding the tree."

"Stef, you couldn't have done anything." Tommy said putting a hand on her arm. "If Marie-Pierre is right, then this is the doing of the earth goddess, Gaia. Nothing can stop her. Nothing we have here, anyways."

He couldn't help but think of the poem that had come with his ring. He needed to find the owner of it, and he needed help now. Was that a coincidence? He didn't know.

"The best thing we can do," Tommy said, swallowing hardly, "Is prepare ourselves to run. To evacuate."

"We're in the middle of nowhere," Eric said. "How do we do that?"

"Look; the first thing to do is just get out of here." Tommy said. "Separate into small groups, and run."

Everyone gasped.

"I know, I know." Tommy said before they could spiral into their own conversations. "This means splitting up the group."

"We can't do that!" Estefanìa said. "We are family!"

"I know, but we either die as a family or we escape in pairs." Tommy said. His energy dropped. He couldn't stand to be separated from any of these people; nor could he stand any of them dying.

"I rather maximise at least someone's chances of making it out alive. If the gods will it, we will reconnect. Perhaps this blow will make them take care of their children better. Until then, we are still on our own. But we've survived that way for centuries, and we will not stop now." Tommy said.

So that was the plan. Separate the group; each teenager would take two kids once the attack would start. And they would run like the wind in opposite directions, trying to reach a nearby town or camp site where help could be found.

"I'll take Schmuel and Lars," Tommy said, swallowing. He was burdening himself. If something happened to either one of the little boys, he wouldn't forgive himself. "They trust and listen to me. It'll make it easier for them to leave everything and go."

"But Tommy shouldn't be keep Lars and Karin together? They are twins after all, they love each other very much and belong in the same family." Marie-Pierre said in French.

Tommy swallowed. "If one of them dies, I don't want the other to see it."

Nobody said anything, the possibility too big and overwhelming and scary.

And then they started making groups and praying for the best.

It was later on that night that Tommy was sprinting through the woods as fast as he could without losing Schmuel or Lars.

"Come on," he said. He held one by each hand and they jumped over roots and logs and branches and rocks.

"Where are we going?" Lars asked, sounding terrified.

"Safety," Tommy said. "You two will be safe, I swear it."

That's when Schmuel missed a root, fell and yelled in pain. Tommy fell to his knees. "Schmuel, are you okay, are you hurt?"

Schmuel was crying and Tommy wasn't sure if it was pain or over exhaustion or emotional stress or a mix. "My ankle."

Tommy assumed that he wouldn't walk anymore, and so picked Schmuel off.

"Okay, get on my back," he said. He transferred his backpack to around his arm and secured the small little boy on his back, arms holding him around the neck.

"Are you steady?" Tommy asked in Polish, trying to reassure Schmuel. He said yes, and Tommy got up.

Running with Lars while holding a backpack and making sure that Schmuel didn't fall off was _not _fun. He looked over his shoulder. He still saw the burning orange and yellow flames. Tents, clothes, food rations, other supplies, Estefanìa's guitar, Eric's maps of the skies, his soccer ball, Karin's doll- he wondered what was feeding the fire. Then 'people' came to mind and he snapped out of it and kept running.

"Tommy, where are we going?"

"We'll see where we end up, Lars," Tommy promised. "It'll be a nice and safe place, okay? And then we'll find the others."

They ran and out of nowhere, Schmuel yelled to watch out and Tommy got slammed in the head with a club or something, and he crumpled to the ground as Lars screamed too, knocked out cold.

"Thomas Sasha Rosenberg, wake up!" A voice hissed.

His eyes sprung open and he jumped at the sound of the voice, rolling over to see who it was.

"Piper," he breathed out. He hurried to the door and took her hand through the bars of the cell, touching her face. A wave of relief washed over him; she was safe. She was on the other side of the prison's bars. "You're okay? You're not hurt?"

"No," she said. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay." He said. She was obviously checking him for scars that she didn't recognise, bruises or cuts.

"Don't they torture prisoners?" Piper asked sceptically.

"Yes," Thomas said knowing that he couldn't lie to her. She'd spot the new injuries if he did, and she always saw right through him. Her eyes got strict. "I'm fine. What about you?"

"I told you, I'm _fine._ Stop worrying. Were you alone when they found you or at the others on the battlefield in trouble?"

"No. Percy's not in trouble. They asked me if I knew him and I pretended to have only met him this morning. His Greek is flawless and I purposefully vandalised mine." Tommy said. "He's safe."

"And Annabeth and Jason?"

"Are with the Greeks," Tommy said. "What was that about in the throne room?"

"They…" her cheeks blushed. "They think I'm Helen of Troy."

He smirked.

"Easy mistake to make," he said.

"Do you want to flirt or get out of there?" Piper asked a hand on her hip.

"I don't know. Don't most American action movies include doing both at once?" Tommy asked.

"Well look who's slick today," Piper said. She reached into the strap of her dress and took out the ring. "Take it."

"Do you have the key?"

"I don't need the key," Piper said. "I can't be seen helping you. Frank is in here; I have to get him out by the time they find out that there's an intruder who has helped you."

"I saw him," Tommy said. "He didn't take a night shift guarding this place like the other guard."

"He's following this one princess around, like a personal guard," Piper said. "Andromache. Wife of Hector and all."

"Okay," Tommy said.

"She _really _doesn't like me. Or Paris- which is funny because I don't like him either."

"Well that can't make for a happy marriage."

"Oh you, hush up." Piper said. "Anyway, when the guards come, put the ring on. They'll be confused, and then they'll come in. Hopefully you can make it out of here invisible, and steal a weapon on the way."

She went on to explain how to get out of the palace, kneeling on the ground and tracing a path there, looking up at him to make sure that he understood every few seconds. He was just amazed that she'd thought this out like that.

"Okay, now I'm going to be in some very deep trouble if I get caught here, and that won't help your case. If they see me with that ring again, I'm screwed."

"Why?" Tommy asked. "Who here would hurt you?"

"It doesn't matter," Piper said. Tommy was about to argue that it mattered very much to him, but she interrupted him with: "Go. Gods be with you."

He took her hand and brought it to his lips. He couldn't kiss her through the bars.

"You too. Thank you." Tommy said. Piper smiled sadly, obviously worried despite the way she'd shot through the explanations confidently, and she left.

Cate

She and Connor were sitting on the top of the Principia.

Was it a good idea? No.

But was dating a Greek a good idea? No.

Cate wasn't easily stopped by bad ideas, and so far they were working for her.

They'd been talking about Peeps and whether or not they counted as food. Connor argued that they did because if your blood sugar was too low a Peep could save your life. Cate argued that there was no proper nutrition in a Peep. Sadly none of them knew what the guidelines for whether or not food was food were; so they were going to have to wait for the smart people to either a) come back from Rome/Greece or b) bust into Camp.

"Cate?" Connor asked.

"That's me," she replied.

"Is it true that children of Hecate and Trivia can control the mist?"

Cate froze, frowned and turned her head to face him.

"Where in the world did that come from?" Cate asked.

"Everywhere. Everyone thinks it, or at least they've heard the rumours." Connor said. "I mean, I know that you don't perform magic in public often so that people don't start asking you for favours or requests. And I know that Jason and Reyna set up a shop in New Rome in which experimental magic _is _allowed for you and your siblings… I have one friend who's magic, but Lou always changes the subject by pulling a poker chip from behind my-"

Cate reached out behind his ear and removed her hand, a poker chip balanced between her fingers.

"-Not cool." Connor said.

"You're right, that's really stereotypical." Cate said.

"So do you? Can you control the mist?"

Cate leaned back for a second. This wasn't the kind of thing she thought about often. It wasn't like when she tallied her powers she said 'I can turn drawings to life, I can also draw symbol spells, I can detach pieces of machines or humans, I can make things change colour…' She just saw 'magic'. She didn't consider herself ruler of the universe because of her powers, not like Connor made it sound.

She knew the answer, deep down. But all of these tricks and the magic simply boiling inside of her were… Well, mundane to her. It was like living in Disney World; sooner or later the Magic Castle wouldn't be this amazing thing it'd be like a simple couch in your living room. She had stopped thinking that her powers were incredible- which, for a daughter of Trivia they weren't, granted. She had stopped thinking or being conscient of the fact that she was special.

Connor always managed to make her feel special.

Cate shifted uneasily.

"Co, the thing about magic is that it can't be explained with words."

"I don't know, I think 'magical' does a pretty good job," Connor said. Cate ignored him.

"You have to feel it in your veins to understand it. And it's very secretive. In TV adds when they say 'beware of cheap imitators', with magic, they're not kidding. The idea that a magician shouldn't reveal their secrets comes from children of Trivia and Hecate. Half of the burnings of witches and wizards were because they wouldn't reveal their secrets to greedy law officials." Cate said.

"Okay, well, I don't want you to burn and we've got a greedy law official on our backs enough as it is; so let's leave it at that," Connor said. Cate smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"When is the place where we can get food going to open? I'm hungry."

"We could go _get _our own food," Cate suggested. Connor gasped.

"What is this sorcery you speak of?"

"I don't know, but it's not going to happen in the near future!" An angry praetor shouted from the ground at them.

Ooops. Yeah; that'd been a bad idea.

Frank

Andromache was smiling by the time he'd left Hazel in the stables, promised to get back to her, and went to find the princess once palace life seemed to have started off again, though they all seemed agitated. He wasn't sure if it was normal or not.

She was holding Astyanax and even he looked happy.

"Did you hear?" Andromache asked. "Were you on duty when they brought it in?"

"What? Me? No." He said. "What are you talking about?"

"The horse," Andromache said. A chill went up Frank's spine. "The Aachen alliance has retreated. A declaration signed by all the kings was sent, along with a peace offering; a horse built of wood." He hadn't seen Andromache happier. "The war is finally over! Isn't it wonderful?"

No, Frank thought although he couldn't say it, it most definitely was not.


	87. LIX Piper,Malcolm,Lou Ellen,Connor

**Hey guys! I see that I should never go on vacation again because that is not okay with you all...**

**Today the format is going to be weird... a lot of PoV switching back and forth... Tell me if you like it or not.**

**Okay there's just one thing that needs to be said before I proceed and it's all about the Demigod Diaries: so if you haven't read it, I sugget you skip to the chapter. And then go read it.**

**I am so beyond excited that HECATE has finally made an appearance! It's about freaking time! I mean, she's like Sasquatch- everyone talks about her all the time all over the place, but she's never been seen before. **

**But I was downright crushed when Piper and Jason were announced as an official couple. Well, not crushed… But nothing good is going to come out of that. Something bad is going to happen. It will not be pretty. Fights, conflict, emotions, drama that is not needed in thier current situation! But it's just me and some people were happy that Piper and Jason got together, so I accept that and congratulate you because I care more about fictional characters getting together than about my own love life and I suppose some of you do too.**

**Anyways, you'll notice some Alabaster Torrington in today's chapter if you look closely at his two sisters; Cate and Lou Ellen. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own.**

* * *

><p>LIV<p>

Piper

As she made her way up from the dungeons, her thoughts concentrated on Tommy and his chances of escape, someone grabbed her arm. And nearly died because of it. But then she realised it was Paris, and he was smiling.

Uh oh.

"Did you hear?" He asked with a smile lighting up his face.

"Hear about what?" She asked.

"The Greeks have surrendered!" He said.

_Styx. _

"They left an offering to us for peace," Paris said. He took her hands. "This is finally over. We can be together."

"Yeay," Piper said. "This is fantastic!"

Which was followed by the most uncomfortable hug of her life, and a kiss that made her want to run back to the dungeons, free her boyfriend, and let him loose on Paris.

Anyways, for the morning Paris was a lot chiller with her. She couldn't decide if she'd liked it better when he wasn't or when he was. She didn't like holding his hand during meals, under the table. Plus her nerves were high because she kept expecting guards to burst in and yell that a prisoner had escaped; but they never did.

When they all sat down in the throne room for some kind of before-public-appearance chat; Piper relaxed a little because, as usual, she just got to sit there and do nothing. Which, for today, was welcome. She kept expecting a door to burst open. Then she'd grab Frank (somehow) and they were _out of there. _

"What do you suggest the next step to be?" Cassandra asked. Piper nearly died of shock. She wasn't silent?

"What do you mean next step?" Paris replied.

"Obviously this is a trick," Cassandra said. "What are you going to do? Reinforce the guards? Keep the soldiers on duty around the horse?"

"It is not a trick," Paris said. "They surrendered."

"Paris, the things I see always happen," Cassandra said.

"Your so-called 'power' is a fluke Apollo cursed you with," Paris said. "None of your 'visions' are anything to worry about."

"That's what you're _meant _to believe." Cassandra said. Her voice was shaking. She was tired of keeping all these prophecies inside her, Piper realised. This was her breaking point; the most horrible thing she'd witnessed so far. "Troy will burn. Father will die. Mother will be killed. You will be slain by Menelaus as he takes back his wife. Andromache will be taken as a slave, as will I. Asyanax will be thrown over the castle walls."

"_Cassandra_." Andromache snapped as loudly as she could, her hands curling up around her baby who was holding a handful of curls.

"I'm sorry to say it Andromache, but it's true!" Cassandra said, her face flushing with anger. Her voice raised to a shout. "All of this will be worthless, and Helen wherever she may be will be lost anyways."

Piper's stomach dropped to her ankles.

"What do you mean 'wherever she may be'?" Paris yelled back at her. He turned to look at Piper as if double checking before confronting Cassandra again. "Helen is right here."

She let out a shrill, nearly frantic, laugh. "That's what you think!"

Paris turned to look at Piper and advanced, Piper forcing herself to stay seated and do her best to look unsuspicious and just as surprised by Cassandra's outburst as the next gal. He grabbed her forearm and dragged her from the throne.

"Let go of me!" Piper demanded.

"Are you Helen?" He asked harshly, twisting her arm.

She forgot about charmspeak and grace and diplomacy as she usually did when she got mad.

"I don't know, are you a prick?"

His hand slapped across her cheek, throwing her head back and making the whole left side of her face sting.

Her jaw dropped in an 'O', her hand raised to her cheek and she was about to slap him back when someone that she couldn't see pushed her back, and Tommy appeared in front of her, a sword held at Paris throat.

The royal family gasped, got up and moved as he managed to push the Prince of Troy back to his throne, choking him between his blade and the throne.

Paris choked and couldn't move. Tommy had him pinned well.

The only guard in the room was Frank, and he looked a bit shocked, but he wasn't doing anything until Andromache got hurt. She was the only one he was (And wanted to be) taking care of.

"Who are you?" Paris choked.

"I am Thomas," he said. "And you are screwed. And if you ever hurt her again, you are _dead." _

His voice was aggressive and Piper had never heard him madder.

Geez that made her feel special.

Finally someone had succeeded in calling the guards, and they all poured into the throne room after recovering from the mini heart-attacks of seeing a prisoner attacking Paris.

Piper saw something shiny at the waist of nearby King Priam, and without hesitation she drew his sword, scaring him like heck. His wife pulled him towards her, away from Piper who was getting the same looks at a terrorist and she rushed to join Tommy, back to back with him as the guards circled.

Frank was nowhere to be seen, and Piper liked it better that way.

She raised her sword and stayed on her guard.

"Do you have a plan?" Piper asked.

"I had other concerns."

"Look who's rushing into the scenes now?" Piper said.

"He _hit _you," he said sounding as insulted as Piper had been. It was a stupid time to smile, but she did. "Besides, you were worst. You jumped in when we didn't even know each other, there were about twenty vicious women with swords already there."

"Please, you were being tortured. You had no way of getting out of that if I  
>hadn't popped up. Besides, I am a terribly jealous girlfriend." She turned to the guards.<p>

"Okay, should we just sit down to have this conversation or are you guys going to do something?" Piper called out to the guards.

They appeared mostly confused. Was it because Helen of Troy was talking to a prisoner, or because Piper held the stolen sword by the right end? She couldn't be sure. Both things sounded absolutely taboo.

The first guard charged from behind and Piper saw Tommy disarm him as easily as if the guard were a straw dummy.

Piper then nearly missed the first guard that charged her. He came sheepishly and almost gently, as if he was freaked out about charging a woman with a sword. Piper disarmed him and (as well as she could while wearing a dress) she swept his legs out from under his and kicked him in the head, knocking him out.

The next one was harsher, and Piper had to tap into her training a _lot[i/] _more. But she disarmed him and sliced his arm. She didn't particularly have a plan for when he'd come back. Part of Piper's brain told her that no matter what kind of guilt she felt, Annabeth and Quinn had both said that this wasn't the real Troy- that all of these people were shades of the real heroes, the real royals, the real servants. It was a trap sent by Gaia. They were like bugs trapped in fly tape, except their fly tape would soon burn.

Besides; with the Trojan horse in the city square…

Suddenly Tommy pushed in front of her, stopping a strike that Piper hadn't seen coming. She had a wild flash in her mind of his back and a sword and she turned around to find that that was exactly what a guard was going to do to him- and he would have succeeded if she had not turned around to stop him.

Holly smokes. That kind of freaked her out.

Out of nowhere, two more swords were added to the mix. Frank had gone to get Hazel.

Piper couldn't let Hazel get involved. The daughter of Pluto looked worse than ever as far as health went. She'd get hurt, or even worst…

"Stop!" Piper said in a loud voice. They didn't listen to her. Nobody listened in a fight.

_Think: what do people always pay attention to? What do they stop for? Pause at?_

"Pain!" Piper yelled.

Everybody froze, uncomfortable for a second. Piper acted upon it. "It's snaking up your arm. It's making your limbs throb a bit, like a tiny heart in a tiny body. Unless you're a Roman fighter."

All of the guards' eyes glassed over. They started rubbing their joints as if they were in arthritis commercials.

"But it's getting bigger as the tiny body in which there is a tiny heart grows," Piper said. "And the pain grows. The throbbing is deeper. It's not annoying anymore, it's painful."

The soldiers reacted accordingly, their faces wincing, their mouths becoming small, their jaws clenching.

"And suddenly it's not pain," Piper said improvising her words, her confidence growing. "It's a monster. It's a monster ravaging your insides. It's curling your fingers towards your palms. Ringing in your ears. Pushing on either side of your skull like the worst migraine you have ever had; thrashing in your stomach."

Swords dropped. A few of the soldiers bent in two. One of them fell to the ground.

"Your shoulders are aching. Your limbs are those of an old, old man. They are rusty. Your stomach is fighting to escape the container of your body."

Most of them were falling to their knees now, if not curling up on their sides. One still stood and he bravely attempted to raise his sword.

"And suddenly it is not a monster ravaging your insides; the very gods are fighting inside your body. A war between deities in brewing inside you, throwing your system left and right, ripping your insides. This is how you die, you are sure. The pain is more than pain."

The screaming started and Piper winced, snapping out of it. Oh gods, what had she..?

"Faint, feel nothing." She ordered quickly.

They all did. Nobody moved, not even those still conscient.

Piper felt her knees go weak, but she forced herself to stay straight, not sure what was taking a bigger toll on her. The effort of what she'd just done, or the horror it brought her.

Frank and Hazel looked pretty terrified. Tommy's face was calm, which helped, and it urged her to go on.

"Who _are _you?" Paris asked.

"Piper McLean," she said. "Daughter of the very goddess to who gave you the golden apple. And these are my friends. We mean you no harm, but we will defend ourselves. Give us until sunset to find the real Helen of Troy, and we will. Grant us amnesty for that deed, and we will give you peace."

Priam answered, which surprised Piper.

"I knew you weren't Helen before you picked up that sword."

"Bull." Cassandra said.

"I don't care," Piper said. "I don't want you to suddenly warm up because I can do… this to you." Thinking about it made her knees wobble. "We'll help you find your princess."

"Done," Paris said. "I want my _real _wife back."

"Oh, don't get me started on you," Piper said pointing. "I could have easily included you with these guys," Piper said waving a hand to the others. "And I would not have felt guilty watching you squirm on the floor's tiles."

Paris didn't reply.

"Deal," Priam said.

Frank poked Piper and for some reason she knew what she was hinting at.

"We have other friends in this city," Piper said. "Who aren't supposed to be here; like us. They need amnesty too."

"Done," Priam said. "But you have until sunset to find Helen or the deal is off."

"And we keep our weapons," Frank said.

Priam hesitated.

"It's not like you can take her voice away," Tommy said.

"Fine then," Priam said. "If you need horses, our stables are open to you."

"Yes," Hazel said automatically.

"Let me help," Andromache said. Only she didn't look downright terrified. "I think I have an idea."

"Good," Piper said. "Because I am fresh out."

And she passed out.

**Malcolm**

He walked around, checking with the counsellors to make sure that everything was okay and that everybody was in armour.

He checked that the children of Hecate were all ready to go.

That the children of Apollo had healthy stashes of arrows and a medical tent set up near the door, in a guard's blind spot.

That the children of Hermes were ready to do some heavy lock-popping.

"Stop double-checking," Nyssa told him. She squeezed his hand. "It'll be fine."

And so Malcolm brought up the special no-monster-attraction walkie-talkies that he and Annabeth had built from one of Daedalus' plan.

"Plan Latin Homework is a go." He said. "Ready for take-off."

"Roger that," the cabin ridding the first eagle, Cabin 16, responded.

He heard heavy flapping sounds, and twenty of the Giant Eagles took off, each carrying a cabin's worth of demigods on their back.

Connor had stolen the key to the giant eagle's coop, and they'd been working on getting the great birds to warm up to all the counsellors for days.

Malcolm wouldn't be fighting during this one. He strongly believed that moderated force was the key to this.

If they snuck in, it would already hit a soft spot for the Romans. If they came out all-out without needing to, it'd be an overkill insult.

He knew that Reyna and Cohort Fifty-Three would be thankful, but he didn't want to have three wild cohorts rampaging and insulted if he could avoid it.

He circled above the ground with Nyssa, his extra pair of eyes, on the smallest of the eagles. It was easier to look over the wingspan, although the thing was still as big as a condor; a 3.5 metre wingspan.

The eagles were big enough to take them to the Fort in less than five minutes, upon which Malcolm brought his talkie-walkie to his mouth.

"Cabin 20; go."

The Children of Hecate didn't use their Eagle to get down; they all jumped on the guard towers, and like monkeys lowered themselves into the sentry towers.

**Lou Ellen**

She wore a thermal shirt with glowing green runes etched all over. She put her fingers on her most demanding spell, invisibility. She watched her brother Trinket to make sure that he did so too.

They would have to be perfectly synchronised with all the other children of Hecate at all the other towers or else some guard had a chance of sounding the alarm.

Lou Ellen raised her hand, spouted red sparks from her fingertips, and they all dove down.

Trinket grabbed one of the guards from behind, covering his eyes and yelling a sleeping spell- his bread and butter.

Lou Ellen swept the other's legs out from under him, waved her hand so that a velvet scarf would be wrapped around his mouth and stop all noise coming in, and turned him into a weasel.

_ Her_ favourite.

"Go, go, go," Lou Ellen told Trinket, who grabbed the mounted ballista and started to work on turning it 360 degrees so that it could be fired _into _the fort- which was not something the architects had thought of doing when they'd built this thing, and involved some tricky magic since it seemed to be made from some rare magic wood and Imperial Gold.

Meanwhile, Lou Ellen climbed back onto the sloping castle-like roof of the sentry tower and lit her hand like a glow-in-the-dark toy. More hands appeared from all of the sentry towers.

**Malcolm**

When all of the children of Hecate had given them a heads up, Nyssa flashed her flashlight a few times, spelling out 'OUT' in Morse code- an idea she'd gotten from Leo apparently, so that all the other cabins would know.

"Cabin 11: go." Malcolm said through his walkie-talkie.

The first Giant Eagle to swoop down was the Hermes cabins, and the campers all jumped from it. They would have the trickiest job –which Malcolm wasn't sure he wanted to trust them with, but they were good at sneaking around and that was all that was needed for now.

Using nocturnal binoculars, these were an invention of the counsellor that had come before Annabeth, Malcolm tracked the eagle. They were all breaking formation and going left and right amongst the fort.

**Connor**

Someone knocked five times on his door, and he emerged from bed fully dressed, his hand hovering above a bullhorn.

**Cate**

As soon as she heard the five knocks she was sounding her bullhorn.

The ladies of the Third cohort weren't very happy with her- protesting and growling and generally half-groggy. Cate was wearing her armour over her magic shirt- a long sleeved shirt with glowing runes that could be unleashed as spells, and she was awake and ready as she strode across the cabin and turned on all the lights.

"Cate-" Britt said. Cate reached into her breastplate and tapped the rune that let her speak louder.

"Listen up," Cate said her voice amplified. "Colin is actually a Greek demigod. He and his camp have a plan to save Reyna and bail us from Joan. So get dressed, Styx is going to go down tonight, and the Third Cohort's going to be knee deep in it."

**Travis**

He had the fun job. Jump into the sleeping space of people he didn't know, wake them up with a bullhorn, tell them to suit up, give the Centurion a walkie-talkie and await for Malcolm's signal to attack.

This also happened to nearly get him killed by strangling bed sheets but someone noticed that he looked like Colin/Connor and that got him by.

"I'm his brother," Travis said. "We're Greek, and we're here to free Reyna."

And he became everyone's favourite person.

**Malcolm**

"Fifth Cohort Dude cabin is ready to go," Travis told him via walkie-talkie.

"Third Cohort Girl's barrack is all set," Cate's voice said.

"Third Cohort Guys were born for this," Connor replied.

"Fifth Cohort girls are feeling bloodthirsty," Elsa Steele, daughter of Hermes, said.

"Stoll and Stoll: Proceed to Excavation," Malcolm said in the walkie-talkie. "Cabin 5: prepare for drop-off."

He supervised until the first member; Clarisse of course, descended from the Eagle and lowered herself to the roof of the Principia with a rope.

"Cabin 7: in position circling the other barracks."

He gave them some time before their Eagle flew back up; always with one person remaining on the Eagle to control it.

"Cabin 10: go in and wait with Cohort Fifty-Three," he said. "Be reassuring. Snuff any doubts."

"Roger, Malcolm," Lacy, who had the talkie-walkie, said.

They did, surprisingly efficiently. They had Pollux, the sole Dionysus camper, with them.

"Cabin 9 now." Malcolm said. Nyssa sucked in her breath behind him, she was worried. He reached out for her hand absent mindedly to comfort her.

Now he had to wait for Travis and Connor to give him the signal.

**Frank**

"So, Tommy; never cheat on Piper. She would kill you. With her voice." Frank said.

He held in laughter. "I wouldn't dream of it," he said. His face grew serious. "That took too much of her energy."

"No kidding," Hazel said, saddling up the last horse. Tommy had her arm draped over her shoulder and he was holding her up.

"It worked." Frank said.

"Not everything that works needs to be tried," Andromache said. This was one of the rare times during which she didn't have Astyanax with her.

"Piper would've done anything," Tommy said.

Hazel finished adjusting the straps and then she crumpled down on the straw.

"We're going to have to wait for her to wake up," Hazel said.

"More time for planning," Frank said.

"Planning what?" Tommy said. "We have a plan."

"There's a cot over there that she'd be better off on," Hazel said. "I'll show you."

Tommy followed her.

"So let me get this straight," Andromache said. "You and your friends are children of the gods on a quest… from the future?"

"Yes," Frank said.

"And you got separated in Troy and in the armies?"

"Yes," Frank said.

"And Hazel is the one you were telling me about?"

Frank swallowed. "It shows?"

"Quite," Andromache said with a smile. "Don't worry. It's sweet. You'd obviously strive to protect her more than any monarch."

"Hazel deserves to be a monarch. It's like you said with Helen last night; she doesn't deserve anything, she just gets it? Well Hazel deserves everything, but she never got any. She wasn't born for the roses and the pearls, the riches and the comfort. I'm not even going to try explaining her childhood to you."

"She got lucky by meeting you," Andromache said.

"Maybe," Frank said. "I just wished she could get lucky and heal…"

Hazel came back.

"Well, it looks like we're going to be playing tic-tac-toe for a while. She's out cold," Hazel said. "Well, so Tommy says. I don't know."

"It's cool," Frank said. He sat down on a bale of hay. Hazel sat down on the ground, crossing her legs. Andromache smoothed out her skirt and sat down on an upturned pail.

"If you do not mind me asking, what is your quest about?" Andromache said. "Considering your tales of camps; I would have assumed that most of your attention would be centered around the Trojan war. I couldn't care less for it, but I've seen enough godly blood be shed on the beaches to know."

"The thing is," Frank began uneasily. "We're from the future, but we didn't come here on purpose. It's an accident. And we all can't wait to get out of here."

**Connor**

"Let's go, let's go, stupid gold, stupid gold- no way this is not reinforced with magic juice or something…" He said. He should have scouted what the one window to the dungeons was like. Some locks were easier to pop than others.

"Let me do it," Travis said pushing him away. He put his own hands on the corners and suddenly the bolts popped up and nearly hit Connor. The grid clattered to the ground.

"Watch it," Connor said, smacking Travis.

"No you, watch it." Travis replied, smacking him on the shoulder.

Connor slid himself into the dungeon, and landed it. Travis did too.

It was a narrow hallway with cells left and right. Except the back one. The back was a door without any light going in, or out.

Travis lit his flashlight.

"Reyna?" Connor called. He didn't want to startle her, especially because she sounded like even in chains she could murder him.

"Reyna?" Travis said louder. "Miss Ruler of Rome?"

Connor slapped him, "Your Honour?" He tried.

"Marco!" Travis said.

There was a skeleton in one cell, but that wasn't what they were looking for. Hopefully not.

"She must be in the back then." Connor said. "The sound and light proof room. Oh, that's low… That's a low place to put a dude in."

"Dudette," Travis corrected.

This time Connor popped the lock, and Reyna looked startled out of her mind when her head snapped up.

She was tied up pretty bad. Her wrists were shackled by chains attached to the wall, which made her look ready for crucifixion (which Joan was probably actually considering).

Her legs were tied to each other and weighed down. But that wasn't as bad as how she _looked. _

Obviously she'd been hungry, losing a lot of weight that she'd never had to lose in the first place. Her eyes were wild, as if being in this cell terrified her. Her cheeks and hands were cut pretty badly, as if someone had been messing with her while she was tied up and defenceless. Her hair was tangled in knots. Since she'd been surprised during the night she was wearing grey sweatpants and a purple tank top.

She started struggling when she saw them, most likely instinct. Her legs looked like a mermaid's tail and Connor was scared that she'd hurt herself.

"Cool it," Connor said. "I'm Connor, this is Travis. We're Sons of Hermes."

"From Camp Half-blood," she said. Her words came out rough and a bit dry. Connor tried to calculate how alone she'd been. Guards only for… a month now, was it? And a bit of time before that where Octavian would come talk to her. "The dogs made it."

"Yeah they did," Travis said. "Rome's getting high jacked."

Reyna didn't seem to like it but she nodded.

"We're here to help," Connor said. That sounded cheesy. "Are there any keys that we can unlock you with?"

"Joan has them." Reyna said. "She took mine."

"Of course she did." Connor said.

Travis pulled some chain cutters from his backpack and worked on freeing her ankles while Connor worked the lock and gave Reyna a brief about what was happening.

The second her ankles were freed Reyna tripped a bit, but Travis caught her.

"Watch it," he said. "Rome's going to have to see you to believe it."

"I don't have my armour," Reyna said.

"Children of Hephaestus are working on opening the main door of the principia. With…" Should he tell her? Yes he should. "Dynamite."

Reyna winced a bit, but Connor went on.

"They should have weapons for you. You use a dagger, right? That's what Cate told us."

"Cate Amjad?" Reyna asked.

"Yeah, this idiot's girlfriend," Travis said nudging his head towards Connor.

Travis was only halfway sawing off the chain on her right arm, when Reyna tugged and the chain snapped out of the wall.

Travis and Connor looked at each other, kind-of freaked out.

Reyna didn't say anything; she just looked them in the eyes. And she was pissed off. Cold anger raced through her eyes. And it made her powerful.

Connor freed her wrist and saw that there was an angry red bracelet at her wrist. Then he realised that it was her skin. She rubbed it down as if it was nothing, and Connor freed her other wrist.

"Let's go," Travis said. They raced out of the room, Reyna's walk a little wobbly but she recovered in about two seconds.

They climbed the stairs and waited. Connor cautiously put his ear to the door.

"I hear fighting," he reported, his heart pounding.

"I wouldn't stay that close to the door if the Children of Vulcan are using dynamite," Reyna warned.

Connor and Travis backed off. Connor's hands drummed on his thighs. Stuff raced through his mind. All the information Malcolm had built his plan on was from him; if he'd screwed up, which he did often, this plan was going down.

And so would Cate, Josh, his siblings, his fellow soldiers in Cohort Fifty-Three, his whole camp, and possibly the world.

And Cate… She had a big job today, and she'd agreed to use magic in battle. That was big for her; and it kind-of worried Connor. She _had _to be okay.

The fighting became louder.

"Con-man, I think they're busy," Travis said. "We should work on escaping via the air duct we came in."

"There's nothing to prop ourselves up to it with," Connor said.

"Each other?" Travis asked.

"No, wait," Reyna said. She seemed to be listening really intensely. They did, trusting her instincts.

"Get down," she said. Travis ducked, but Reyna saved Connor's life by throwing him on the ground, to the left.

A door smacked down on the ground between where Reyna and Connor where and where Travis was and where, conveniently, Connor had been standing 0.5 seconds ago.

Reyna was holding him down. She got up and offered a hand to Connor. He felt stupid taking it from a girl who'd just spent a month in a sound-proof cell.

Two dogs barked and Aurum and Argentum who'd came down from the Eagle with Cabin 9 raced to Reyna.

She knelt and scratched them under the mussels.

"Who's a good boy?" She asked. "You two did good. Yes, I'm glad to see you two as well, but things need to be done. Back off guys." Reyna said.

Jake's head popped up in the door.

"I'd get out of there if I were you. I'm not exactly sure if there will be a Principia in a minute."

Someone in the principia yelled; "Actually, it's more like two minutes!"

"What?" Reyna asked.

They climbed the stairs, the Stolls following Reyna who had two shining dogs at her heels. Behind Jake there was a good fight going on, Children of Hephaestus and the sons and daughters of Ares who had covered for them were fighting hard-core with legionnaires. Second legion, Connor thought.

Jake pointed to a doohickey on a suction cup stuck near the door to the prison.

"This thing was designed and made by Annabeth," Jake said. Connor could tell; a silver owl with intense eyes and outspread wings was on there. It was a mark the children of Athena used. To mark their books, their experiments, their chariots; whatever.

"It was going to be on the Argo II as a defence mechanism to throw on… whatever; but she ruled it as too dangerous and she wanted to test it some more. Anyways, we got desperate because the uglies –no offence Reyna- joined up with us and we used it to blow the door open, but I think it's kind of going to blow again except twenty times stronger."

Something clicked in Connor's mind.

"The Mark of Athena burns through Rome," Connor said. "They thought it was Ella… But it wasn't, it was this… Burning through… Uh oh."

"We don't have time for prophecies," Reyna said. Her voice was full of control. "We have to get the fight out of here, now. Can I get a knife or something?"

Jake handed her an Imperial Gold dagger.

"Connor swiped this from Joan's house a few days back." He explained.

"Thank you," Reyna said.

"How do we get a fight out of this place?"

Reyna brainstormed for a second.

"Romans follow orders," Reyna said. "And I am good at giving orders."

Reyna examined the fighters for a second.

Then she ran in, wrapped her free arm around a legionnaire's throat, dropped her weight, whipped the legionnaire to the ground, pressed her dagger to his throat which made him scream like Hades, and used her foot to knock him out.

Travis talked into his walkie-talkie. "Malcolm? This is T. Stoll. Reyna's free. And she's scaring me."

"Good," Malcolm said. "That's how she's supposed to be, isn't it?"

Connor was pretty sure that he and Nyssa had just kissed of joy on their magic giant eagle.

Anyways, Reyna's stunt did not go unspotted.

A few of the legionnaires froze, and the children of Hephaestus did too (Children of Ares did not simply stop fighting).

"Romans," Reyna said. "The Greeks are our allies. Those who disagree may continue fighting, but know that if you fight against Rome's allies you fight against Rome. And I am one very territorial praetor."

"You're not the praetor," some brave soul shouted.

Clarisse bonked his head with a shield and he crumpled to the ground before anyone could think of responding.

"Thank you," Reyna said. "You have two choices. You can stay here since it'll blow up in a minute or so, or you can take orders from Clarisse and follow her to safety."

"That'd be me," Clarisse said.

"Make your pick." Reyna said. "Connor? Come with me, please."

And so they left the Principia.

They stood in the doorway. Torches had been lit and were being carried. The legion was fighting with itself, really. The Greeks were just helping out. Children of Apollo shot arrows from the roofs where they were perched with full quivers, their best bows, and night vision goggles. Everybody else was fighting and armed.

Cohort Fifty-Three was marked with the reflective tape overprotective parents put on their trick-or-treating kids for easy identification by the Greeks. Another glimpse of Malcolm's genius and careful planning right there.

"Where's Joan?" Reyna asked.

"Joan Golan? I dunno," Connor said.

"I get to go find her then," Reyna said. Her voice was calm, but Connor got shivers for a tyrant he didn't like. Reyna's knife caught some firelight all of a sudden. "My treat."

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS HO!<strong>

Guest- Writing and revision takes a long time and unlike many other quick-posters I do both!

Guest- *gasp* Must've been the ninja overlord...

percabeth4ever- *troll face* You were saying? (Yeah, I'm still working on Josie)

yiffy14- I'm getting back into the original plotline in about 4 chapters, bear with me! Also no I haven't reaad it, the souls thing was based on Plato's 'The Symposium'

Percabeth122- I'm glad you're not sick of me!

Ryan McCan- Leo's still alive, and I warned you all in my Author's Note: I couldn't post, I was going to another city.

Guest- That's actually a really good question, and I don't know the answer. I'm sure they said it in some contexts like 'may the gods bless you' when someone was doing them a huge favour, but I don't know if they did when she sneezerd. All I know is that they didn't say 'Gezheinteit' because that's German.

booklover- I'm working on it

Guest- I KNOW! I groanned when I read. But I will take down no stories, I will probably just add some more. I'm your last hope? HUZZAH! I was actuallly thinking of adding a new story every week until Jason and Reyna became, like, officially not a couple. I mean, anything could happen in MoA. *Cross fingers*

Lover of this fa- Leo won't be around for a little more time. Patience, young grasshopper.

Ryan McCan- I'm like a mother. I love both equaly.

Guest- Check, check and time limit- sort of.

leolove- Maybe at the very end

Lover of this fa- ME TOO! You're not alone!

siaha17- No idea, just gonna go with it.

Guest- It's technically no marriage, but she's too scared to even date. The voices and all...


	88. LX Frank, Piper, Hazel

**Hola Lords and Ladies!**

**Okay, so my goal was to get this story out of Troy by today. Well... I'm only half-way there. I didn't want to make you guys wait, but expect Troy to collapse by next Friday at the most.**

**I started school this week. Yeay. I was randomly stuck in advanced math, my geography teacher is hilarious, advanced English is the most fun I've had while studying language in a public school system in EVER, and my legs hurt because I have gym everyday and I haven't done gym since March because of reasons. **

**So this is going to be a hard feat to pull off. I mean, finish Books of Tartarus, complelely write and publish the next story (who's name was decided today :D!) and do my homework so I don't get in trouble. Expect this to run a little longer than after MoA comes out. But I _will _finish this thing!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>LV<p>

Frank

"So, Tommy; never cheat on Piper. She would kill you. With her voice." Frank said.

He held in laughter. "I wouldn't dream of it," he said. His face grew serious. "That took too much of her energy."

"No kidding," Hazel said, saddling up her horse. Tommy had Piper's arm draped over her shoulder and he was holding her up, her chin was resting on her chest.

"It worked." Frank said.

"Not everything that works needs to be tried," Andromache said. This was one of the rare times during which she didn't have Astyanax with her.

"Piper would've done anything," Tommy said.

Hazel finished adjusting the straps and then she crumpled down on the straw.

"We're going to have to wait for her to wake up," Hazel said.

"More time for planning," Frank said.

"Planning what?" Tommy said. "We have a plan."

He had a point. Drat. Now they were just wasting time. Well, not wasting, he reminded himself. They'd need Piper for this.

"There's a cot over there that she'd be better off on," Hazel said. Tommy followed her.

"So let me get this straight," Andromache said. "You and your friends are children of the gods on a quest… from the future?"

"Yes," Frank said.

"And you got separated in Troy and in the armies?"

"Yes," Frank said.

"And Hazel is the one you were telling me about yesterday?"

Frank swallowed. "It shows?"

"Quite," Andromache said with a smile. "The way you look at her. You'd protect her more than any monarchy in the world. You'd guard her with your life."

Frank looked at where Hazel had disappeared, "She deserves to be a queen or a princess or a duchess at the least. What you said about Helen? It's true. Some people are born lucky, some are born unlucky. Most of the time it should be switched. I wish I could switch with her so that she could have a better life."

"I'm not an expert on any of this, but I think that meeting you is more than a sliver of luck for her," Andromache said.

Hazel came back.

"Well, it looks like we're going to be playing tic-tac-toe for a while. She's out cold," Hazel said. "Well, so Tommy says. I don't know. Not really."

"It's cool," Frank said. He sat down on a bale of hay. Hazel sat down on the ground, crossing her legs. Andromache smoothed out her skirt and sat down on an upturned pail.

"How did Thomas sneak into the throne room?" She asked.

For a second Frank was stuck inside his head wondering who the heck Thomas was.

"Oh, Tommy," Frank said. "We call him Tommy. Something about he grew up with a guy called Thomas and it was too confusing. His home called him that when he was nine and they still do. He and Piper share this ring that makes you invisible."

"The one that Paris took from her last night?" She asked.

"I don't know," Frank said.

"Cassandra spoke to me about it, it was before we arrived." Andromache said. "I forgot to tell you."

"He stole her ring?" Hazel gawked. "Oh my gosh. She must've been furious."

"She stole it back," Andromache said. "I must admit, Piper has spirit."

Frank muttered something about understatements.

For a while it was quiet, but Frank knew that Andromache still had many questions so it was only a matter of time before she cracked and-

"If you do not mind me asking, what is your quest about?" Andromache said. "Considering your tales of camps; I would have assumed that most of your attention would be centered around the war. I couldn't care less for it, but I've seen enough godly blood be shed on the beaches."

"The thing is," Frank began uneasily. "We're from the future. We didn't even know that this was going on. Our boat kind of just… got attracted here… if that makes any sense."

"I just met a whole bunch of demigods, found out that Helen wasn't Helen, and there is a big wooden horse in the courtyard." Andromache said. "I think I can deal with nonsense."

Piper

She was having the most insane dream.

It was definitely New Rome.

It was night time, the whole display lit by flashlight. Someone was lying on the ground, dead. If he or she didn't have a face, Piper didn't see it. She just saw a boy with shaggy hair on his knees next to the dead, sobbing.

An angry face broke across the crowd.

Piper recognised Reyna.

Her face turned pale when she saw the body.

She walked straight up and knelt, bowing her hair.

"Bellona protect this soldier lost in battle," she prayed quietly. She looked down at the figure that Piper couldn't see. The sobbing fire looked up and Piper recognised Travis Stoll crying.

Reyna pulled the soldier's sword from the scabbard at his or her's waist.

"I will kill her with your sword," she said. "Don't worry."

Piper opened her eyes and she didn't recognise her surroundings, but it smelled like the Camp's stables. Someone was holding her hand and she turned around to see Tommy.

"You were quite spectacular," Tommy said. He brushed the hair out of her face. "How are you feeling?"

Piper opened her mouth and said, "Like my throat was set on fire." But her voice was croaky. That shocked her into sitting up straight and putting her hand in front of her mouth. "Oh my gods…"

"I hate to say it, but it does sound like your throat was set on fire." Tommy said.

"Or my vocal cords were cut out and sown back on." Piper said.

Tommy kissed her. "It's okay. That took a lot of energy, what you did in the palace. But we're all safe. For now."

"What time is it? Where are we? Have you found Helen?"

"It's around three in the afternoon," Tommy said. "There's been a royal appearance to celebrate the horse. We're at the palace stables. And no, we haven't left yet. The others are waiting."

Piper swung her legs off the make-shift cot. "We have to go then. We need Helen to be in that palace when the Greek warriors pour out of that horse, and so we'll need to be out of Troy by then. Therefore we also need to find Valdez, Quinn and Josie beforehand."

"You're making the to-do list too long," Tommy said. "Step one: find Helen."

"Gotcha," Piper said. He helped her up, which was appreciated since her legs felt as solid as marshmallows.

Frank and Andromache were sitting down and talking, the princess drawing in the dirt with a piece of straw. Hazel was brushing the mane of a horse, and two of them were already ready to be ridden out.

"Pipes!" Hazel said. She got tackle-hugged with arms surprisingly strong judging from a glance at Hazel.

"Oh gosh, yes Hazel, that's me, glad to see you too."

Even Frank hugged her. "You scared us, there."

"I scared me," Piper said. She turned to Andromache. "Hello," she said.

Andromache bowed her head and said her helloes.

"She was telling me about the layout of Troy. Once you get past the market it's like New Rome, a grid. If we cover the roads going vertically first, then horizontally we have better chances at finding the others."

"The priority is Helen," Piper said. "We need amnesty after that little stunt, and the future will change if Helen isn't in that palace..." She didn't say it because Andromache was there, but _tonight. _If the Greeks stormed Troy without finding Helen…

"I think I know where she'll be." Andromache said.

"Where?" Frank asked.

"Do you think that he was any nicer with Helen than he was with Piper?" Andromache said. "Of course not. I mean; Helen was Paris' pride and joy and he loved her, and she is a lot calmer and cooler-tempered than someone over here," she said with a smile. "But I think that Helen ran away."

"Good, because I am _through _with this people-being-kidnapped business," Piper said.

"Where would she be, then?"

"Oh, she'd have tried to join Menelaus in his camp. Just to calm him down and try to give herself up." Andromache said.

"But there's no way she got past the guards," Frank said. Andromache shook her head.

"But she _is _a daughter of Zeus," Hazel said.

"This isn't Jason, Haze." Piper said. "Helen was never trained in any way. She was raised by two mortals. Never has anyone ever wanted her for her powers or strength, it was just for her looks- she may not even know she has them."

She'd never thought of that about Helen of Troy. Always forgotten that she was a daughter of Zeus, too. But after spending a day in –literally- her shoes, Piper knew it was true.

"That possibility's out," Frank said. "What would she have done if she was stuck out in Troy?"

"She didn't come back to the palace, did she?" Hazel asked.

"No, Piper was there. Someone would have noticed that there were two of them, or sent her to her handmaidens or a guard would've gotten confused by the different clothing." Frank said.

"She'd have had to find shelter for the night." Andromache said. "Troy is a beautiful city as long as the sun's shining on it. After dark…"

"Good to know Quinn and Josie were out there," Hazel muttered.

"She'd have stuck around the market place," Andromache said. "She's new to the city; she hasn't grown up here or toured it widely. The only place she'd know would be where we have public appearances every time we're supposed to look pretty."

"Wouldn't anybody notice her?" Frank said.

"'Most beautiful woman in the world' doesn't give you a great chance to hide," Tommy said. "What does she look like anyways?"

"Like Piper," Andromache said.

"I knew that," Tommy said so low only Piper heard him. She shot him a look but she couldn't get mad at him for flirting with her when it wasn't the time. She just couldn't.

"Except older," Andromache said.

"How old?" Frank asked.

Andromache rummaged through her mind for a number, "Twenty five, I think."

"Wait," Piper said. "But she's been in Troy for ten years so…" (25-10=15, her brain calculated). Piper buried her face in her knees. "Freaking gods…"

"She is young," Andromache said. "Too young for her own good. She's a bit taller than Piper. Thinner. Her build isn't as strong. She's a bit paler, but that can pass as a trick of the light. But other than that there's no major difference that I can see."

Frank turned to Piper. "You've got about her face. How would you do it? Hide in Troy."

Piper's jaw dropped. "Well gods be damned if I know. I've never done this before."

But she thought for a second. Thought back to the Wilderness school and every other school and academy she'd been in.

"Change clothes," Piper said.

"Change clothes?"

"Yes," Piper said. "She'd be wearing something very loose and without a shape. Very plain, worn, old. Nothing too new or stylish. Also she would try not to draw attention to her face, so I don't know if she might have worn a veil or shawl or something."

"Okay. So we'll go in the market first off. Tommy and Piper; you two should go check at the doors."

"I'm not going back near the guards," Tommy said. "They'll just drag Piper and I back to the palace, maybe hurt her. We'll lose time."

"Okay, fine. Tommy and Andromache. If you're with the Princess of Troy, you'll be fine. Hazel; you can patrol around the market with your horse. Piper, you too. You can ride, right?"

"Don't worry, Ace is a big softie," Hazel reassured her.

"You named the horses?" Piper asked. Hazel looked embarrassed, but nodded.

"They didn't have names, and I wasn't about to call them Horse 1, Horse 2…"

"What will you be doing, Frank?" Tommy asked.

Frank looked so serious and composed and in charge that moment, to Piper he looked like a whole other person.

"I'm going to become something small and do some snooping." He said.

Hazel

It was difficult to navigate a horse through Troy without stepping on toes or crashing into stalls. The second Hazel had seen the traffic and gauged Piper's experience on horseback she'd made a change to Frank's plan. She'd be taking it on foot. She still had Priam's sword at her side, so Hazel was hoping that she'd be okay.

She made her way through, people respecting the fact that this horse looked like a palace horse. Today everybody and their dogseemed to be in the market. They were all chatting and celebrating and embracing each other. The children were playing games with hoops and their imaginations. They were all celebrating around the horse.

That horse…

It was as tall as a two storied home, completely made out of wood, with straw for its mane and tail. Hazel wondered how long it'd taken to build it. She was sure that Leo would love it.

Speaking of which; she was still on a look-out for the others at the same time.

She trotted around, causing complaining from the Trojans, and looking through the crowds for people in loose clothes that looked like Piper but weren't Piper.

She noticed a thin crowd that went away from the market, and followed the sound of that.

There was a public speaker with her back to Hazel, but she immediately recognised the flowing accent.

"And so that's how the world's going to end," Josie said. The hairs on the back of Hazel's neck rose.

She dismounted from her horse and advanced, holding the horse's reins in her hand.

"Josie?" Hazel asked. Her friend turned around.

"Hazel! Fancy seeing you here."

"Not really, no." Hazel said. "What are you doing?"

"I must excuse myself," Josie told the crowd. She turned around and ducked with Hazel and they walked off a bit.

"They've elected me as their official future-teller," Josie said, her voice low. "Get me out of here. They won't let me go anywhere. I'm running out of things to say and the Fat man over there has a sword."

"Have you seen Quinn?"

"Nadda."

"And Valdez?"

"Not in the present."

"What's he doing in the future?" Hazel frowned.

"Hooking up with a skater girl," Josie said. "Also; something about barrels and water falls."

"Lovely," Hazel said. "I assume this means he lives."

People were looking at them oddly, but they seemed to respect Josie's order to stay away.

"They respect you," Hazel said quietly. "Use that."

"How?" Josie asked.

"You are freaking Josie Esposito," Haze said. "You can tell the future, dance and play the piano. You blow things up with your mind. You are a freight train when you talk. You are dramatic and sarcastic and spontaneous and overall you. Just, you. I don't know how, but do it."

Josie stared blankly for a minute. "Nobody's ever known me that well."

"What?" Hazel asked.

"Nobody," Josie said again looking at Hazel. Her eyes were deep all of a sudden. "_Dios,_ you're putting me on the spot."

Josie stretched her arms and cracked her neck.

"Get on that horse, Hazel. You are my getaway van."

Hazel cursed in her mind –the maybe-I-shouldn't-have-left-my-best-friend-in-charge-with-her-imagination-running-wild type of cursing- but did like Josie said. She watched her friend walk back to where the public was waiting for her.

Josie talked some more about when people's faces would be magically sent from one place to another and recorded like moving paintings. Suddenly she collapsed. Hazel would've panicked, but she knew Josie well enough.

A hand dramatically shot up.

"I- I am getting word from the spirit world," she said in a hoarse voice. Suddenly a pot in a nearby –and very interested- potter's stall exploded and everyone gasped and scattered away. Hazel realised what Josie was doing.

"Danger- destruction- death…" The pot in a close by woman's hand burst and water splashed on her feet, causing her to back away into the rest of the crowd and push them back.

"A fire… fuelled by wood and souls… and by Troy…" The ground exploded at Fat man's feet (Josie really had it in for him, didn't she?)

People gasped and stepped back as explosions kept bursting the ground in a wide circle around Josie, getting bigger and bigger and pushing the crowd back, even chasing some away completely. Dust flew in the air and made it hard to see. Josie rambled on about this and that, but most of it centered around 'death' ('even you, Fat One') and breathed like she was about to die. It was all very dramatic.

She noticed that suddenly, there was an opening to get to Josie. Hazel yanked on the reins of her horse and they galloped forwards.

"Death…" Josie rattled out. And then she collapsed on the ground with an arm over her chest and one trailing near her head.

People were screaming. Hazel wasn't particularly sure what it was about but they were screaming.

"Apollo give us back your seer!" She heard one scream. Everyone was panicking and begging and praying to Apollo for no reason (instead of checking, like, if Josie was dead or not or getting closer to the line of fire). People were so desperate to know the future; they didn't care if it was good or bad. They just wanted to hear it.

Anyways, at that moment Josie got up and sprinted off. Hazel held out her hand, Josie jumped and grabbed it and they managed to hoist her onboard the horse as it ran.

They galloped past the mob of Josie's 'fans'.

"Never wearing a dress again, what is this, this is form of torture?" Josie said, looking insulted. "Did female kind try to destroy the earth and this is punishment?"

"Hey!" Some guy yelled. "You tricked us! You lie! You deceive!"

"Yup; that's my monopoly-winning strategy." Josie commented.

"GET THEM!"

And so that's how Hazel met her first angry mob. Well, second, depending on how you saw all the cohorts who'd taken over Rome.

"Yah!" Hazel told the horse who went into a gallop.

They galloped down streets and narrow alleyways and the mob chased them through. Finally Hazel saw a road blocked for the Trojan Horse's festivities, and she leapt over the wooden barricade. When she looked over her shoulder for a split second before turning back; they were all stuck there.

"Gods curse you, imposter!" Someone yelled.

"Gods curse you both!"

"Too late for that _amigo," _Josie called over her shoulder. "Geez, some people just can't handle it."

"What's 'it'?" Hazel asked.

"Life," Josie said.

Tommy

He twirled with the ring around his neck nervously. This was an old habit, but he hadn't done it in a long time. Since he met Piper, actually. She had insisted that he take it but he was pretty sure a Helen-of-Troy lookalike should get priority on being invisible. He suspected that he'd let his guard down and she'd jumped to the opportunity and charm spoke him into doing it.

They found a guard at the other end of the tunnel that crossed the thick walls.

"How are we going to do this?" Tommy asked her.

"Like this," Andromache replied quietly. She walked forwards.

"Guards," she said, her voice much louder.

They turned around.

"Prin-Princess Andromache!"

Recovering from their shocks, they scurried to clumsy bows.

"My friend and I are looking for someone who may have escaped the city."

"Escape from Troy is impossible."

"Has anybody come out of the city in the last two days?" Andromache said. Tommy let her talk. She had the status to make things happen. He'd just intervene if she needed a sword hand.

"No, Milady."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. This is the only door from which escape from Troy is possible without opening the gates."

"Andromache," Tommy said. "Maybe she snuck out from the gates as the horse was snuck in."

"Impossible," the guard said. "Curfew was still applied. Besides, where would she have gone? Nothing is there. Not even the filthy Greek camps."

Tommy didn't say anything. If, somehow, she'd escaped from the fortress… The Greeks wouldn't be anywhere. She'd basically be stuck. He _really _hoped that they didn't have to expand their search on the beaches and on the surrounding land. Then they'd be damned.

"Alright, has anybody even _tried _to exit the city despite clear orders not to?" Andromache said.

"Yes," a guard said. "But don't worry Milady, we sent her on her way."

Tommy's interest spiked up.

"Who?" Andromache said.

"An old woman," he said. "With a crooked back and a shrouded face."

Cha-ching.

"Why did she want to go out?" Tommy asked. "Do you know where she is staying?"

The guard looked at him in disgust.

"I don't know why, she didn't say. And she's staying somewhere in a tavern. I think she and her family got stranded here before the war and she wants out." He said.

"Which tavern?" Tommy asked again. The guards' eyes thinned in recognition.

"Aren't you the-"

"We'll be off!" Andromache said. She grabbed Tommy's arm and dragged him back out.

"Milady, are you alone?" The guard called after them. "You can't possibly wander alone it isn't pro-"

"Of course not, he's here isn't he?" Andromache replied over her shoulder. When they were far away she let go of his arm.

"That was close," Andromache said. "Princess or not, you're still a wanted prisoner."

"That doesn't matter," Tommy said. "Everyone's rejoicing over the horse. But that _had _to be Helen that came."

Andromache nodded. "I agree. We need to find the others."

Well, Hazel was on the horse so that would be easy. He was pretty sure that he'd be able to spot Piper. Frank, on the other hand, was currently a mouse, fly or a chicken or something very easy to snoop around as. That was going to be harder. They hadn't talked about that part of the plan.

The palace horse wasn't in the market, it was in a distant alleyway and Hazel wasn't ridding along; she'd picked up Josie from wherever that girl had been along the way.

Tommy horse-whistled when he saw Hazel and that got her attention. She steered towards them.

"Found Josie," she said uselessly. "I see that you guys didn't find Helen?"

"The guards said an old woman with a shrouded face tried to sneak out. It sounds a lot like what Piper told us. Hello Josie."

"Hello Thomas." She said.

"Great!" Hazel said. "Oh, Andromache, this is Josie. She's one of three people who weren't at the palace or in the army."

"Hello," the princess said.

"So, which tavern are we checking out first?" Josie asked.

She got some heavy looks.

"You _know _where Helen is?"

"Kind-of." Josie said. "It's a bit blurry in my mind, but I can feel her there. It's a tavern. A rather dusty one."

"Loads of taverns have closed," Andromache put in. "Without the travellers coming in or out of Troy they can't make the money they need to live, there used to be many of them because of the market. That doesn't narrow it down."

"Let's go check out closed and rundown taverns," Tommy said. "But first; let's find Piper."

"Why?"

"Gut feeling," he said. "I think that if Helen will listen to any one of us, it'll be her."

"Probably." Hazel said. "Or the effect of seeing someone who looks like her will stun her long enough for us to explain what's going on."

Frank

After nearly getting flattened by an annoyed mortal's hand, Frank decided that travelling as a fly wasn't the best way to get around a place. But now he was stuck in the form because there was no quiet place to go transform and come out as a bulky guy in armour. Not that he thought that anyone in the victory-drunk crowd would answer. They were so blinded by victory, none of them were thinking straight, just happy to have the war over.

He buzzed around looking at crowds. He saw Piper, had a double take to make sure she wasn't Helen. He had lost sight of Hazel and her mare. A band had been set up, wearing expensive silk clothes that must be from the palace. People were dancing along with the belly dancers that must also come from the palace.

He buzzed between ankles, between shoulders and around ears.

A while later he realised that the four demigods who'd started the search were back together and heading towards a boarded up wooden building and so he followed. Tommy shook the plank put across the door before trying to break it down my ramming into it, and finally taking out his sword and clearing it out as if he was crossing a jungle with a machete. He pushed everything aside, let the others go in and followed.

But he hung back around the front door, going into the building only to change shapes. It looked a bit like a pub of some kind, but sad, haunted-looking and falling to pieces. Thank the gods none of them were allergic to dust.

He heard people running around and freaking out on the floor above him. Dust creaked from the spaces in between the boards. Frank waited a second, recognised a few voice and some Spanish swearing, and went further into the building.

That's when someone with brown hair ran down a staircase, shot into the left and whammed into Frank who caught whoever she was. She screamed.

"Let me go, let me go!" She said running the other way. Frank had caught onto her wrists and he wasn't letting go.

"I won't hurt you, calm down." Frank said. He stretched his neck back to have a good look at her. She looked like Piper, except her skin was a tad paler (Greco-Cherokee demigods didn't exist yet), she was a few inches taller (Frank didn't tower over her as much), her rich chocolate brown hair wasn't as choppy and she was more polished up and taken care of than Piper was- he only noticed these things because he was looking for them; like, you could see the difference between twins if you knew them really well. She looked up at Frank and he couldn't decide what colour her eyes were, but he knew it was something pretty.

Yeah okay, she was Helen of Troy.

She tried to weasel out of his grip but that didn't happen; nanoseconds later the others jumped down the stairs, Josie had her arms like a ninja.

"We found her," Tommy said uselessly.

"I got that," Frank said. He let go of her wrists. She was stuck between him and the others.

Helen bowed her head and her eyes were teary. "I don't want to go."

Uh oh.

"Look, Helen," Piper started. It sounded more like 'started again'; her voice sounded tired, and not just because it sounded as if she was half-toad to top off the half-god. "You have to come with us."

"Troy is your home." Andromache said.

"No it's not," she said. "To you it is. They welcomed you with open arms."

"No they didn't," Andromache said. "They wanted a younger, more beautiful, richer wife for Hector."

"That's not what I heard."

"Of course it's not what you heard. They want to make the world glossy but really the only thing in the world that is are newborn babies and elders who have stopped doing wrong because they know that their time is up. You have to _make _Troy your home, Helen."

"I've tried," she said. Her voice sounded close to cracking. "I've tried for ten years but it never feels like it because Troy isn't where people fight and die."

Well Styx. People were fighting about Helen of Troy and she didn't even want to be in Troy. This war was very poor.

"You have to look past these things," Hazel said. "Always. It doesn't matter where you are; there's always going to be a crack or a dent but it's always going to have the potential and the people to be home."

Helen didn't say anything.

"They're really worried about you back at the palace." Frank said.

"No they're not," she said. Her voice got louder. Frank had hit a breaking point- whoops. "They're worried about my image- their image. Gods damn, I'm not just a face and a body. I'm not just an image. I'm a person too."

"We know," Tommy said.

"Well nobody else does!" Helen said. "I'm an image, a beautiful statue to show off that so happens to walk and speak. A work of art. A beauty of nature. But I am not a treasure, I am fool's gold; I have no real worth. The gods gave me two legs and this one time I tried to use them to do _some _good to have _some _real value, I thought that since I can't fight I might as well run…"

Piper walked up to Helen and took her hands. The Princess looked up.

"I know a son of Zeus who has great power. He can summon lightning and use the winds to soar. You may fly too, Helen. Anyone who can fly has value."

"I was never taught," she replied quietly. "I was only taught to pose and be graceful. I was only taught that I was beautiful and that that was enough."

"Beauty is never enough."

"I know. It scares me now." Helen said.

"I used to be scared of being pretty, of being beautiful." Piper said. "I used to think that… I don't know what I thought. I didn't want people looking at me and expecting something that wasn't me at all." She took a deep breath. "But the outside doesn't matter. You can't let it change who you are or how you act. Well, not to me, because it's my power- it's how I fool monsters and humans, impress people, and make tables turn, and I know that now. This is how I fly. You just need to find out how you do."

Piper chatted on about Hazel's gems; Frank's transformation and how this son of Zeus she mentioned could channel lightning powerful enough to turn a palace to ruins. It was very casual, very lively because Piper spiced up what had become routine to Frank.

Helen looked at them for a second. "Okay," she sighed. "I… I will go back."

She let out a deep breath. Maybe just talking all this out and spilling the beans had calmed her down enough.

"You should go get your veil," Hazel said. "That way nobody will stop us on our way back."

So she, Helen and Josie headed up the stairs.

Piper approached Frank. "We can't let her go back."

"What?" Frank asked.

"You heard her," Piper said. "She's like… she's like a seed in a packet. But instead of taking her out of there and planting her, they just left her there since the picture on the packet was pretty."

"I don't get it." Frank said.

"Packet?" Andromache wondered out loud.

Piper made a frustrated noise and then talked, "Look, I lived a day in her life and nearly died. After talking to her? Frank, she's desperate. It's not right to make her go back to that."

"Piper, think of the bigger picture." Frank said.

"The bigger picture doesn't matter." Piper crossed her arms. "She's not happy. And I don't mean, like 'oh man I'm so mad at the gas prices going up'. I mean, like, breaking point unhappy. She _ran away_."

Frank scrambled. He wanted to find a solution before she broke out into charmspeak.

"Andromache," he said. "How did Helen arrive in Troy?"

Andromache thought for a second. "Aphrodite arranged the affair according to what I was told by Paris. She arranged them meeting, she arranged Menelaus, Helen's original husband, not to see anything of their conversation."

Piper muttered something about her mother.

"Paris and Hector were on a business trip to Sparta, to sign a peace treaty. Paris caught her eye, I suppose, and she'd caught his a long time ago. I don't know the details, but he came back with her."

"Was she willing?"

"Yes, of course." Andromache said.

"That doesn't mean anything," Piper said. "She was fifteen! _I'm _fifteen! Fifteen year olds do stupid things just because we can! Do not trust the fifteen year-olds!""

"Stop Piper," Frank said. "She did this. She chose to come here. Our curses are ours, our powers are our own. It's her duty to stand for that decision and keep the future intact just like it's your duty not to charmspeak your way to Parliam- I mean, the Whitehouse and Hazel's duty to keep the gems under control."

Piper's shoulders dropped. "I'm sorry. You're right. I just…" Her hand touched her cheek, where Paris had slapped her. Tommy took her other hand, his eyes bitter.

"I know," Frank said. "You feel sorry for her. The world isn't a place to feel sorry for people, though."

Suddenly he felt like his father. A no-nonsense, in-charge, plan-making guy of action with a sword and a buzz cut who got jobs done. For the first time he wondered if maybe that was a good thing, what he was growing into.

The three girls came back down, Helen's face covered by a veil.

"Let's go," Frank said.

Piper

Her feelings were confusing her. Again.

She'd spent a great deal of time at the palace being mad at Helen. She'd spent some more time in the real world thinking of her as only a pawn in a giant war of nations and wits and great men. But now that she had her right there Piper felt… protective.

The guard let them come through nice and easily and they were rushed to the throne room where everyone was pacing.

Paris' eyes brightened when he saw her and Piper did honestly consider the possibility that there was some form of love in there for a second.

"Helen," he said sounding relieved, holding her. "I was scared we wouldn't find you."

"Didn't trust us?" Piper asked.

"No, as a matter of fact," he replied, evidently still mad with Piper.

"Bark," Piper said.

And he did, and scowled at her. She saw Helen give a slight smile before removing her hood.

Paris was holding Helen's hands, in the terrifying no man's land between Troy's royalty (and guards) and the demigods. Piper's hand was resting on the sword, but none of the guards looked particularly eager to come at her.

"What got into you?" Paris asked. "Why did you leave?"

"I-" Helen didn't say anything.

"What is it?" Paris asked. She noticed a slight wince in Helen's posture.

"Her business," Piper spoke up before Helen could talk and get herself in trouble.

Paris looked up at her. "Whoever you are, you have no-"

"Listen to me talk," Piper interrupted back. "Or do you want to roll over and beg? No? Thought so. Helen and I have a deal worked out."

Helen made a face like 'we do?' Tommy, Frank and Hazel had a face like 'you do?' Josie had her usual uninterested expression like, 'can we move on?' It was getting on Piper's nerves a little.

"If you ever bother her," Piper said, "She's going to call me. And I'll come. And I will personally make sure you find yourself sitting on a very, very elevated place for no reason that you can remember with people throwing some very, very disgusting things at you."

"Is that a threat?" He said.

"It's a promise, bud." Piper said. This should keep Helen out of trouble for now; until the horse cracked open and the Greeks poured into the city. After that there wasn't much Piper could do for her.

Paris opened his mouth but Tommy stepped up closer to her and crossed his arm. Piper loved that he looked twenty times scarier than he was. She was about as terrifying as a baby panda, so this provided balance.

"We'll be off, then." Frank said, probably to defuse the tension.

"You'll leave?" Andromache said.

Reality clicked into Piper's mind. Right. They were free now.

"We have to," Frank said. "This took up a lot of our time."

"You were only here for two days, not even." Andromache replied, frowning.

"That's a lot, for us." Frank said.

"I suppose so, if you're a half-blood."

Andromache took his hands and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you. I wish you the best of luck with everything you go. The same goes to all of you." She said. Hazel went up for a hug.

Piper shot Helen a smile. Helen smiled back weakly. It was still one of the most beautiful things Piper had ever seen. Not Helen. Just someone smiling after going into a storm cloud.

Tommy took her hand and she immediately knew that there was no way she could've left Troy with Helen. Frank was right; duty or not, it felt right to be just them on one side, just the princesses and princes on another side.

Hazel gave instructions to a guard as to where the horses were and to rub them down when they brought them back into the stables. Priam asked for his sword back and Piper, reasoning that she'd get Katoptris back soon, gave it to him. Cassandra starred at Josie adamantly, probably well aware of who her father was and what she could do.

"Good luck," Josie told Cassandra. "Daughter of Apollo or not, I'm still a seer."

Cassandra nodded solemnly. "Good luck, sister."

And they walked out of the Trojan palace like they owned the place.

* * *

><p><strong>Annons ho! Go find your name in bold and read!<strong>

**Guest- **I'm glad you like the story for much! The story's nearly at its cilmax so dngaouefgoesrngosfngdkls

**I am Rachel- **No man, I'm making frigging s'mores.

**Guest- **Leo is coming! Next chapter, I pinky-swear!

**Lauren- **Yes I am, and chances are, no I will not!

**siaha17- **Thank you! And yes, I did, my cousins are nuts so we get along. Also they have a dog. Not a large dog, though.

**Percabeth4ever- **...is the kind of complication that Frank is anguishing about but that won't matter since Priam gets killed in the initial bloodbath.

**Guest- **I'll do my best to post regularly once school starts.

**AMistyStar- **The Quest for Buford had a very weird timeline. It went something like:

December 17/18- They get to camp

December 18/19- They left camp

December 21- Be badass and go back to camp

December 24- Is building warship and going on quests to find Buford!

The problem is that there's a line that says that construction is two months in so *cocks head to one side questioningly*

But technically Jason and Piper had two months to get together according to that one story. OMG, maybe it's an AU and therefore Jason and Piper aren't really dating at all! O:

It's okay though, the story was cute :) (Minus the Jasper, sorry... it's not my cup of tea, personally)

**Kayce- **Thanks for the input, that's what I thought too.

**emily-** _ARGH- _I know!

**Guest- **I don't know when the story's going to be finished, probably not before MoA, they will be out of Troy soon.

**goodjob- **Thank you!

**Guest-**Yeah man.

**Chubbychicken- Your chubby chicken army is nothing against my Terrifying Turkey Union!**

**Daughter of Rhea- **Feel free to PM me about anything! I answer to everything! It's okay that you didn't read :) Being grounded sucks. Ella and Tyson are guarding the boat, Percy is places, Annabeth is IN the Trojan horse.

**EditorGirl- **thank you for your excellent editoring services!

**Guest- **Reyna does not simply wait before kicking butt. Also yeah, those two are going to have to stay behind.


	89. LXI Quinn

**LXI**

**Quinn**

Night was falling and she was bracing for the worst, getting ready for what might be the hardest thing of her life. Enduring the voices and escaping Troy unarmed and alone. The moment she'd seen the horse she'd started to try and get an idea of where the main doors were, but it was highly probable that she'd need another exit.

She curled up in her newest ally and rested her head against the wall. Sunset was making everything around her glow.

Finally it was gone.

_Miss us?_ The voices started. _Probably not. Much like the world will feel when you die._

And so it began.

_Which, by the way, will be very soon._

Words rang in Quinn's mind and she tried to concentrate on those instead of the voices but it was hard. She was going to have Hades of a headache.

_ "The answer is right in front of you. You could see it if you tried. Open your eyes, Quintina," _Lord Jupiter had said._ "You know that the mist can still affect demigods. You know that monsters can still stay hidden. As well as… nymphs._

Nymphs, what could this be?

Quinn looked around her. Her eyes were coated with a thin layer of mist according to most demigod theorists. She couldn't see monsters until they attacked.

She got to her feet.

But by what Jupiter said, something was out there, waiting to be seen. The voices got louder in Quinn's head and they pounded against her skull. She cringed at the sheer volume. It was as if she'd walked into a concert, but instead of having an enormous room for the sound to spread and bounce around in it was all contained inside her head.

Okay; she was definitely onto something.

She took her glasses out. She'd been hiding them by sliding her glasses through the straps of her sandals and being very careful when she walked. She put them on and that spot on the bridge of her nose finally felt satisfied. Glasses were a bother for anybody who had to run around and change faces often. J.K. Rowling had not illustrated the bother of wearing glasses enough in Harry Potter.

She concentrated her eyes, which made them hurt and made her head burst into migraine mode. Quinn let out a scream of pain and shut her eyes as tightly as she could, bent in two.

_Little girls shouldn't play with fire,_ the voices said.

Something else echoed through her mind, through the clatter of torturous voices. Something Lord Jupiter had told her.

_You are a brave soul, a fitting Roman. If you survive this journey, if you find the part you are to play behind the scenes; I will reward you greatly once you return to the twelfth legion Fulminata. Until then; you must brave the storm._

Quinn forced her eyes open and her vision was blurry. She focused her eyes and squinted again.

And for the first time she saw what she was hearing. She was so surprised that she nearly lost sight of them, knowing that the image would stay imprinted in her mind forever. The voices hissed like snakes.

They looked like scruffs of black fabric, torn and worn, floating around the air like fallen leaves in the wind; floating around and diving down on her. It took a while for Quinn to see bones as thin and frail-looking as birds' poking and somewhat giving a shape to the rags- bodies. Dirty and oily haired heads poked at the top and Quinn screamed again when she saw the faces she screamed again.

They were sunken in deeper than a normal skull's creases went. The skin was pale and thin and the nose was thin and hooked. The eyes were only sockets and the mouths were open, toothless, shrieking and hissing.

She only got to see it for a moment before her screaming and her migraine and the overwhelming rush of everything made her scramble back and fall against the wall, which did not help her headache.

Quinn was breathless.

_Those? Those _were her voices?


	90. LXII Hazel, Piper, Leo

** Okay guys, happy labour day weekend! I am posting this because 1) I promised Leo and accidentally cut yesterday's chapter at the wrong place, so you get your Leo now (I am sorry Guest). 2) Rick Riordan just gave us the last few character art releases for Mark of Athena (Heracles, Arachnid and Venus) and so I give you present as well and 3) I just hit 500 pages of writing this thing... so BAM**

** In other news that excite me greatly I HAVE A TUMBLR! YES! This has been something I've been asking for for a while now. It's called Left it Marble and can be found at hecatea . tumblr .com if you remove the spaces.**

**Originally it was to have a dashboard and know when burdge-bug and a few other people added content, but I also like having pretty pictures and awesome things in one place- and since everyone's definition of awesome is different, I have mine. Yay! **

** So here you go. You guys are going to be out of Troy by Monday, I think.**

**Disclaimer: Me no Own **

* * *

><p><strong>LXII<strong>

**Hazel**

She, Josie, Frank, Tommy and Piper were stuck. They just stood in the tunnel going through the thick wall of Troy, refusing to move forwards before they had a plan. Nobody could come up with a suggestion or say what had to be said.

"Okay fine, I'll say it." Frank said. "But I think the girls need to go back to the ship."

This ended with the expected result and what Hazel had been waiting to do; whining.

"That sucks," Piper said.

"Okay, look, this place is going to blow." Frank said. "Quite literally. Heavily armed, blood vicious Greeks are going to pour in here and dominate and you do _not _want to be in there unarmed."

"Gems," Hazel protested.

"Charmspeak," Piper said her voice suddenly sweet and pleasant.

"Mind-power-doodle-blow-up-thingy," Josie said.

"Okay for starters you," Frank said pointing to Josie, "Have not been known to use that other than in a very extreme circumstance where your control was poor without passing out. You," he said pointing to Piper, "Have charm spoken enough for the day. Once we get out of Troy, we've got to hit the ground running and if you do more you will trip and fall on your face."

"Don't protest," Tommy told her. "It's true. We see it in your face."

"Well, _you _do because you're connected by the fates," Frank said. "And you," he said pointing to Hazel, "Need to save your energy."

Hazel pouted.

"Other than that it'd be great to have you guys around." Frank said. "But logically, you guys need to go join up with Tyson and Ella at the boat."

"Why not you two?" Piper asked.

"Quinn and Leo are still in here," Frank said.

"And Percy is somewhere with the army in Troy, Jason and Annabeth might go into Troy tonight. They might be in that horse right know." Tommy said. "They need to be found."

"You three rest up," Frank said. "Get food, water, first aid supplies and the boat ready for when we get back with the others. It isn't anything personal or sexist. It's just how things ended up. Piper, you can't be seen you're too Helen-like. Josie, you've got an angry mob after you if I got that right. Hazel…"

Frank didn't have to say anything. She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, which shut him up.

"Okay," Piper said like it hurt. "We can do that."

"Thank you," Frank said.

Tommy took her hand. "I know this is like the final insult after having to wear dresses and not carry weapons and act weak. Sorry."

"To all three of you," Frank chimed in.

"I'm touched," Josie said. It sounded either nonchalant or sarcastic. Frank ignored it.

Piper leaned in and kissed Tommy. He wrapped an arm around her. Hazel felt that warm feeling spread through her, leaking from her heart to her toes when she saw people happy.

But she felt bitter too. Time and time again, Piper and Tommy or Jane and Cedric or however they wanted to be called were together. Yet she didn't get that once. It was official: the universe was _trying. _

"We'll see you all later," Piper said. "Be safe. If it gets too hard, come back."

"Roger that," Frank said. He looked at Hazel. "Rest up," he said.

"I'm not a baby," she replied.

"I know," Frank said. "You're strong. But we need you to be as strong as possible by the time we leave Troy. Gut feeling: we're going to breathe for about fifty seconds before we're swarmed back into the war. If Gaia bothered to create this distraction for us, and according to the maps on the ship; we're a few hours from the nearest Greek or Italian land."

Hazel blushed. But at the same time a feeling crept up on her, standing over her and casting a shadow.

Hours from Greece and Rome… In a few hours she'd be fighting for her life, springing to life, battling in the most demanding ways she ever had. And if she lived through that, the doors of death would close but bring Hazel in seconds before.

Death was near.

Piper

When she and Tommy were walking through the tunnel he asked her something that caught her off-guard.

"Did you tell Helen the truth?" He asked.

"What?"

"The truth," he said. "About being shy about how you looked. About hiding from others?"

Piper starred at the ground. No matter how she felt now, it was still a touchy subject now.

She nodded. "Yeah. It was. Ask Jason or the Valdez. Never wore make-up, never did my hair, never wore nice clothes. Always hid in the back."

"That's insane," Tommy said. "That's crazy. That's so, so stupid."

For a second she was shocked that he was talking to her like that.

"How could there be millions of guys in America and not one of them snapped out of it and told you how beautiful you were?"

Leo

He was carrying a bucket of water back to the house- which happened to be very, very far from the community well Anchises had told him to use. But he was pleased to do it. He'd fixed the house up as well as he could, and it still sucked- so he'd keep helping out.

He looked up at the giant form looming over him. The Trojan horse. He whistled in admiration; it was such an enormous and detailed craft… This was going to be his new project once he got back to camp (if he got back to camp, and if camp still existed). Except he'd make it something cooler. Like a llama. He'd build a Trojan llama. He could install an elevator in the neck and a platform in the mouth and head. Maybe he could install touristy binoculars inside and make a quarter-based fortune big enough for him to retire young and live comfortably. And to make even more quarters, he could install water guns from which people could squirt genuine llama spit. Or just water to rip off the population.

He was getting carried away.

It was dark now, the sun had set. That baby was due to crack open and spill out soldiers anytime now. There was a moment of truth that would come then; whether Menelaus would actually stand at the doors and yell "LET TROY BURN!" like in the movies or not. Part of Leo was excited to see it, but part of Leo still feared the upcoming doomsday because he wasn't _that _completely insane.

He knew that Anchises and Ascanius would live, Aeneas would save them. As a matter of fact, Aeneas was at their house right now so they were safe. But all these other people…

That's when he heard it first. Someone screaming in pain.

For a second he paused, tilted his head and wondered if he'd imagined it. He heard it again, and it didn't sound like it came from inside a house. So Leo went to investigate.

Following his ears led him to a dark alley which he wasn't too keen of wandering into. But he did, and saw a very familiar blond someone with a very unfamiliar face.

So he knew it was Quinn- mid neck hair and glasses and short runner's build.

But her face was shocked and her eyes were hazy and she was crumpled against the ground as if in pain.

"Whoa- Quinn, what are you..?"

"Never real," she breathed out. "Never a curse…"

"What are you talking about?" Leo put down his water bucket and knelt in front of her.

"It's all them," she said. "They made me believe…"

"You okay? What happened? How many Leos do you see?"

Quinn didn't answer anything, she looked lost and out of touch with the world. Leo looked down the alley. He had a view of the Trojan horse...

"Come on, let's just get you out of here." Leo said. She did what Leo assumed was her best to get up, but it didn't work. He put the pail down and hauled her up. He propped her against the wall, picked up his water bucket and draped her arm over his shoulder. She was way shorter than he was which was saying something. He slipped her glasses off her nose because those hadn't been invented yet and dropped them in his bucket for lack of a better place.

"Let's go," he told Quinn. "Can you walk?" Her face said 'no', but Quinn tried and it helped somewhat.

"We don't have far to go," he lied. They were just passing the center of Trojan activity; they had a _long _way to go to get to the sketchy neighbourhood where Anchises lived.

Leo tried to keep Quinn updated but her face was so hurt, so shocked that he had no idea what happened to him. She didn't _look _hurt, but obviously Leo couldn't see inside of her.

They made it and Leo knocked on the door with his foot. Quinn reached out with her hand to try and take the doorknob but it was pulled open by Aeneas. The leader of the Trojan army was strong, with shaggy brown hair that looked like it'd been cut with a sword recently and a beard, dark eyes, and the same build as Percy and Jason except buffer and older.

He zeroed in on Quinn immediately.

"She's a friend," Leo explained before he could comment. "I… I don't know what's wrong with her, but…" The door opened further, Aeneas took the water bucket from Leo, and Leo soothed Quinn to take a few more steps inside this strange house with strange strangers.

Anchises spotted her immediately, and got up from the one chair Leo had had the material to fix properly. He thanked him and sat Quinn down, kneeling in front of her to try and zero in. Quinn's eyes were empty, which was making Leo panic more by the minute.

"What happened?" He asked. "Who is she?"

"I don't know," Leo said brushing away the hair that was sticking to her face with his fingers. "She was alone."

"My…" Quinn struggled to talk. "Is Quintina."

"Alright," Anchises said. "Aeneas, boil some water to drink."

"What happened?" Leo asked. Nothing. "Monster?" He suggested. "Human? Demigod? Bad dream? Deep revelation about Gaia's suspicious secret plans? Are you just, like, dehydrated or something..?" He knew that that wasn't true.

"I don't know," Quinn said. Her face was clammy and sweaty, her eyes looked hazy and suddenly Leo knew what it was; the voices. But they had to be _heck _of a lot worst now for her to have that face.

"The usual?" Leo asked.

Quinn didn't reply for a second. "I saw them," she said.

"You saw them?" Leo asked.

"Saw who?" Anchises asked.

"The voices," Quinn said. Her eyes got teary. "I'm not losing my mind, Leo. They're actual. Flying in the air…" Her eyes got glazy and she winced, her eyes shutting tightly and opening quickly.

"Okay," he said. "Quinn, we knew you weren't crazy."

Her eyes got even more teary.

She hadn't.

She hadn't known she wasn't crazy.

He looked over his shoulder towards the door. Ah, fudge, he needed Annabeth. Or Piper, Hazel, Josie… Someone Quinn connected with more; someone that knew how to manage this.

Aeneas put a cup of water in front of her. Leo helped Quinn drink. He was now pretty sure that she was in shock. He tried to think back to what you did when people went in shock, but he didn't know.

"You're safe now, okay?" Leo said. "Whatever they were, they're not here anymore."

"They are," Quinn said. "They never let me go anywhere alone. Bad dreams…"

Anchises and Aeneas looked confused. Ascanius had actually sat up, draining the colour out of his face as he did. Great, he'd transformed this house into a hospital.

"Well tell them to go away," she said.

"They're nymphs, Leo." She said. She was obviously having trouble stringing her words and thoughts together. What was going on inside her head right now? Was it ten times worst since she saw them?

He left her alone for a bit. At least she was off the streets where an unarmed and shocked small girl would have been in loads of trouble.

Aeneas and Anchises were waiting for him by Ascanius' bed.

"Leo, you know her?" Aeneas asked.

"She's a friend. One of the others who got stranded here."

"What happened to her? What does she need?" Anchises asked.

"Nothing that there is in here," Leo said.

"I'm sure that there's a way to get her whatever it is that…"

"No, I mean, there's nothing in Troy." Leo said. "I think she just went into shock… She's not making much sense, which she usually does. Look, long story short…"

He told them that Quinn heard voices but that she wasn't crazy and now she was trying to tell him something about nymphs and conflicting reality and nightmares.

"Are they Oneiroi?" Ascanius croaked.

Everyone looked at him, not having realised that he'd been up and listening to them.

"Grandfather told me the legend about them," Ascanius said. "Dream nymphs."

"Ah, yes," Anchises said. "Clever boy."

Aeneas went to sit down next to his son who snuggled up, glad to see his father quite obviously.

Anchises walked up to Quinn. His joints weren't cooperating with him, but he knelt in front of her.

"Quintina, my name is Anchises."

"No my name _is _Quintina," she said.

"That's what I-"

"She can't hear you right," Leo said. "It… it happens."

"Alright," he said unsure. "Have you ever heard the term Oneiroi?"

She nodded shakily.

"They are the spirits of dream who live in a cavern in Erebos, the land of supreme darkness in the Underworld. They pass through either one of two gates to get to the human world; if they go through one they bring prophetic dreams, but if they go through the other ones they bring…" Anchises explained.

"Nightmares," Leo realised. "Quinn, these guys are after you?"

Quinn nodded, opened her mouth and winced.

"Don't bother about them!" Leo said. "They don't matter. But I'm Leo and I'm your friend and I care about you so I _do _matter. Focus on what matters."

Quinn hesitated and had a few failed attempts before she said. "Guinea pig…" She winced. She was trying to make sense of everything and she was trying to help him up. "Open doors. Me."

"Leo?" Anchises asked in a 'help' way. Leo tried to figure it out.

Quinn was having some kind of nervous breakdown which, granted, should have happened a long time ago, but was still happening at a very bad time. She was obviously still sane (which was good for Leo and generally the world), but something that she'd seen or heard, maybe those Oneiroi, was too much and she'd finally cracked. And then the voices were adding to her pressure and she couldn't talk or hear him properly.

She looked up at him helpless and hazy, obviously trying to get through to him as best as she could which, scarily enough wasn't very well.

Leo felt terrified.

Nobody had relied on him that helplessly and that much since his mom had relied on him to open those workshop doors for her.

His throat tightened but he brushed it away.

"Okay, so… You think that Gaia… when she started trying to open the doors of death, to let souls out…"

"Hazel," Quinn said between winces.

"Okay, so when she recovered from Hazel's blow…" Leo said. "Her first try to open the doors of death was like a test drive… but instead of letting out souls she let out these guys? The Oneiroi? On you?"

Quinn looked up. She obviously hadn't heard a single thing that he had said.

"It's cool," he said. He wished he had some paper and pens to pass messages to her. He was pretty sure that he'd pieced it together, though. It made sense. Then again a lot of things that made sense weren't what really happened, like world peace and human rights and not hating on races and gay people and whatever else people found to hate on.

He went to explain things to the two others.

"She's been going through this for years," Leo said. "Seeing the Oneiroi made them louder and I guess… I don't really know, nobody does… Well, maybe she does now. We don't know what causes it."

"Does she live in Troy?" Aeneas said.

"Kind-of a long story," Leo said. "But no. She lives in the North. Even more North than I do. Like, Canada-type North."

"She should rest," Anchises said, ignoring Leo's last line.

"She won't like being told to," Leo said. "Trust me."

"So what do we do to help?" Aeneas asked. Leo had never felt more thankful. These two guys were royals living as peasants. They were poor, Aeneas was war beaten and exhausted, Anchises was old, their son/grandchild was dying of an illness they couldn't afford to keep fighting against… But they weren't asking that many questions considering he'd just brought home a broken down friend whose problem he couldn't explain really well.

"Leave her," Leo said. "That's what… that's what she likes. Eventually she'll snap out of it and walk and talk. I hope. She always does. Do you have anything that can, like, make her brain work? Brain stimuli or something?"

"She's educated?"

"You make me laugh. This girl? Smarter than all of us combined."

"Daughter of whom?" Aeneas said suspiciously.

Upon realising that Aeneas was a son of Aphrodite, Leo had revealed his godliness so they could all bask in the extra glory. Not really, he just made a stupid comment like, 'hey, I know your sister' and then was forced to explain. These people were surprisingly cool with demigods and had even sheltered him.

"Athena," he said.

"I thought so," Aeneas said.

"You've been to Camp Half-Blood?" Leo asked.

"For a few years," Aeneas said. "Not in a long time. But I _definitely _remember the daughters of Athena. His mother was a daughter of Athena," he said looking at Ascanius. Anchises put a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Oh. I'm sorry," Leo said. This daughter of Athena obviously wasn't around anymore.

Aeneas walked up to his son's bed, reached under, and pulled out a leather satchel. He handed it back to Leo.

"These were hers," Aeneas said. "She'd want a little sister's of hers to find use in them."

Leo looked through. Thin wires, some tools, a wooden set of turtles that looked like matryoshka dolls (those Russian dolls with a smaller one inside a bigger one inside a bigger one), a frame of wood with beads threaded on rods. He pulled it out.

"An abacus," Anchises said. "Agathe loved it."

"She loved numbers," Aeneas said.

"Oh, that works, 'cause that's a ditto for Quinn." Leo said.

He tapped Quinn on the shoulder and she looked at him. Her eyes were grey and alert. She was obviously regaining some control. He showed her the abacus and put it in front of her. She looked up at him before looking down to the beads, and then pushing them to the left and right and moving down the rods. Her fingers worked quicker and quicker and the math got more complex. He left the satchel on the table for her.

"It focuses her," Leo told Aeneas. "Thanks for that."

"Not a problem," he said. "Thank you for caring for my father and son. I wish I could do so more often, but with Hector dead…" he sighed. "At least the stupid war is over."

Leo looked away from Aeneas, slightly guilty because he knew _exactly _how not-over this guy's troubles were. He saw that Quinn had moved on from the abacus to something else in the satchel. She wasn't wincing as much.

"Yeah," Leo agreed.

"Is your friend going to be okay?" Aeneas asked.

"I don't know," Leo said. "At least we know the cause now, right?"

"Oneiroi aren't your everyday nymphs," he said.  
>"Agathe and I met a bunch of them, but only once."<p>

"And what did you do?" Leo asked. "How did you beat them?"

"We didn't," Aeneas said. "She's not around here, now is she?"

"Oh," Leo said feeling stupid. "I'm sorry."

Aeneas brushed it away.

"We were bound not to survive everything we got into," he said although it didn't sound as if that made it any better for him. "We've been at it since we were twelve. I treasure that she gave me Ascanius."

That made Leo think of Percy and Annabeth. A duo that just got into pickle after pickle, prophecy after prophecy, quest after quest. And like them they had an unhappy ending.

That's when someone knocked on the door and everyone turned around. Aeneas reached for his sword, but Anchises made wide arm movements to tell him to put it back in. Quinn hadn't heard. Aeneas opened the door and Leo nearly had a heart attack. Percy was there.

Piper

Tyson nearly crushed her in a hug when he saw her.

"Piper is okay! Hazel is okay! Small girl is okay!"

"Watch it, you." Josie said. He didn't crush Hazel in a hug, which was appreciated. Her legs gave out under her nearly right away, though. Piper had forgotten about the amount of energy that hunting down Helen must've cost her.

Josie caught her, said she had it, and she limped downstairs with her. Piper got Tyson's help for food and he went down the stairs right away, a jump in his step, ready to help. Ella, on the other hand, just starred at Piper.

"Ella?" Piper asked.

_ "Child of lightning beware the earth, _

_The giant's revenge the seven shall birth_

_The forge and dove to break the cage_

_And death unleashed through Hera's rage,"_

Piper opened her mouth to protest that they knew the prophecy already, but Ella went on without stopping.

_"To the north, beyond the gods, lies the legion's crown._

_Falling from ice, the son of Neptune shall drown._

_Wisdom's daughter walks alone,_

_The Mark of Athena burns through Rome._

_Conquerors of flame and time shall fight the enemy under,_

_As above, rage unlocks weapons that armies flea,_

_Allies found in the most unusual place_

_Secrets revealed and never forgotten _

_Allies formed in the most surprising space _

_Double death by a fighter and a lover._

_And they all lived as happily as can be."_

This Piper had heard already. Ella had said the first four lines, the rest had been something Rachel had come up with and announced at a senate meeting.

_ "The giant's birth to make the earth strong_

_Together the three elders shall do no wrong_

_Two will die, one will stay_

_And fates unaware if the world to see another day."_

A chill went down Piper's spine.

"Ella, that's from the sibylline books, isn't it?"

"_'Certainly I knew, Minerva. But one does not parade the fact that one is All-Knowing. I frequently act as though I am not possessed of the Inner Eye, so as not to make others nervous.'_ Sybill Trelawney, page number-"

"Ella, that's great," Piper said. "But was that from the Sibylline books? Did you just recite every prophecy there is about this war?"

"War, the Art of War, S-"

Piper let it go, but her heart had stopped.

"Piper coming?" Tyson called from downstairs.

"Of course, Tyson," she said looking at Ella. The harpy obviously wasn't going to tell them anything more. Maybe she could grill Josie later. She doubted it would work but the words rang across Piper's mind.


	91. LXIII Percy, Quinn,Frank,Hazel,Annabeth

** Okay guys, happy today-is-actually-Labour-Day-and-also-it-is-Monday-and-I-promised-to-get-you-guys-out-of-Troy****. Yay! **

**Rick Riordan got a tumblr, so everyone in the HoO/PJO tumblr on there is like HIDE EVERYTHING! Tumblr thinks I have not been following Rick Riordan for long enough to send him fanmail. Guess what tumblr- I have. And it takes even more effort when you have no dashboard, no facebook, no twitter; so tumblr should arrange for me to fly to Texas and deliver my fanmail to him myself.**

**Side notes: Glass windows were not used until the Roman era, but the sound of breaking glass is intense so let us all pretend that the Trojans used them too.**

**Disclaimer: Me no Own **

* * *

><p>LXIII<p>

Percy

You know you're pathetic when you're walking around on the happiest night in the history of a place, and you're totally alone and miserable.

Plenty of people had come up to him, giving him props and celebrating and thanking him and trying to say things to him but bursting into tears since he was dressed in soldier's armour. He might've felt like a celebrity during the victory parade, but he felt like he was walking in a bomb range without anybody else knowing it'd rain grenades.

He'd nearly told the other soldiers. After Tommy had gotten captured many had warmed up to him. Like 'oh, gods, sorry you had to be stuck with that thing' and a group of the younger guys had kind of absorbed him in. He felt horrible using Tommy's possible death sentence as leverage, but there was nothing he could do, and no way he could sneak away.

Although he had felt in trouble when Aeneas had talked to him privately afterwards.

"You swear you didn't know him?" He'd asked.

"No, we got shoved together and that was that," Percy said. He felt like a backstabber. "We just fought together because it was us against those other guys."

And that was that. He imagined that his Greek complexion and fluency (thank you Chiron and, dare he resentfully say it, Annabeth) in the language helped.

Anyways he'd lost his sort-of-friends in the crowd after they'd stopped being one actual army and more like trickles of people in a mass of bodies after the parade, which sucked because Percy was alone. No parents or girlfriends or (he'd been terrified when someone had asked him) wife or children to go back to. He was alone.

Except for that time a couple of dancers had tried to pull him away from the crowd. That was weird. It's not that they weren't pretty, or mean or anything. He knew that he owed nothing to anyone now. Especially not Annabeth after the way she'd treated him. But he couldn't bring himself to even talk to them.

So he walked around alone and lost. Someone handed him a pint of wine and he thought of Mr D which made him homesick (Seriously. Thinking about the wine god made him homesick. He had to get back to New York fast.) Plus he was underage and even though nobody cared and nobody would know, it mattered to him because it would have mattered if he were at home, so he gave it to some guy that was already half-way to the land of the drunk. He felt like a total loser, not celebrating with these people… Then again, there was nothing to celebrate, technically. Troy would burn soon.

Then the royalty of Troy made an appearance and everyone freaked out with either joy or anger or Percy didn't even know what it was, but people freaked out. Except Percy noticed something; there was no Helen of Troy there. It was just Paris, the king, the queen, this one grumpy-looking princess. He thought that that was weird. So did some people in the crowd, but that didn't stop them from being hyper.

He tried to look for the others while he was there. Quinn, Hazel, Leo, Josie, Frank, Piper… He didn't see them.

"You don't look so good," someone said. Percy turned around suddenly and saw Aeneas.

"Oh, me? I…" He said.

"Why are you alone?" Aeneas asked. "Don't you have friends or a family who is glad you're home? Not even a sweetheart?"

"No, no, definitely no," Percy said. "It's… complicated."

"Do you have a place to stay tonight?" Aeneas asked after a while.

"Yeah," Percy lied.

He didn't look convinced. He gave Percy a small bit of old paper.

"In case you need one anyways," he said. "Just come, okay? Have a good day."

And so there he was. He'd tried staying near the horse, that way he could intercept Jason or Annabeth (preferably Jason) when the horse would unload and not get totally lost and stranded since it was a pretty big landmark. But nothing was happening and it was getting cold and Percy didn't feel safe.

So he'd followed the directions, found a shack that didn't look like the kind of place a general stayed, but ended up being the kind of place where a general, his father, his very sick looking son, Leo and Quinn stayed.

"You!" Leo said pointing to Percy.

"You!" Percy said pointing back at him.

"Perc-Per-Percy," Quinn said wincing and pronouncing his name carefully as if to not screw up syllables, which he thought was weird.

"You know each other?" Aeneas asked looking from Leo to Percy to Quinn.

"He's… another friend. I have lots of friends." Leo said.

"Who is this?" The older man asked.

"Father, this boy is named Perseus. He was in the army." Aeneas explained. He turned back to Percy. "I knew it. I knew you were alone in Troy."

"Yeah, well… Technically now I'm not 'cause I found Leo and Quinn," he said.

"So you were with the Trojans?" Leo asked. "Cool. I was here and Quinn was in an alley. Did you see the others?"

"Not a clue," Percy said. "How did you get here, and how did Quinn get in an alley?"

"Chickens," the older man and Leo said at the same time. Percy decided that inquiries were unnecessary. "And Quinn… Well, we don't know. We're working on getting her sanity back."

"What now?"

Leo gave him the brief on the Oneiroi and so forth, which made Percy's head heart without even hearing them.

"My plan was to check with Annabeth and see if it made sense."

"Good one," Percy admitted. He waved to Quinn and she waved back before going back to whatever she was making.

The older man introduced himself as Anchises.

"And he must be your son," Percy said looking at the boy lying in the bed. This kid was pale and frail and skinny. His eyes were deep inside his head. For a terrifying second he made Percy think of Hazel.

"Ascanius," Aeneas said. "Yes."

The little boy straightened up and looked at Percy.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"My name's Percy," he said. "I was one of your father's soldiers."

"Does he have to go back?" Ascanius asked worried, his voice weak and croaky.

"No way bud, he's all yours now." Percy said. Ascanius smiled and shivered, so Aeneas went to tuck him in again.

"I can light a fire," Leo said.

"Please," Anchises said, pointing towards the fireplace.

As he built up a fire, Leo told Percy about how he'd fixed this place up for them. Percy didn't say anything but that sounded really sad to him. What had it been like before? He'd done a fair bit of living in a bad situation- say, abusive and drunken stepdad and minimum wage salary mom who got hit because said drunken stepdad was a –no, he mustn't use that word- and this was one of those times where he felt that all over again. The dad gone to war, the son obviously sick, the grandpa poor, no mom around… Why did people who needed more get less all the time? Why, reality, why?

It shocked them both when Quinn came to sit down with them, smoothing out her dress.

"You better?" Leo asked.

Quinn nodded. Her face was unreadable but Percy could tell that she was ashamed. And there was a certain kind of sadness to the grey eyes behind her glasses, something that ran deep and had firm roots down there. They didn't ask. Percy gave her shoulder a squeeze because he didn't know what else to do.

Leo shot a fireball onto the small fire he'd built up, looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody had seen that, and started poking it with an iron stick.

"You're welcome to stay for the night," Aeneas said. "Of course, my family and I will leave Troy tomorrow, as soon as we can to get back home. Our goal is to make the journey before Ascanius… Well, before he gets any worth."

"If you do not mind me asking, General Aeneas, what is it he suffers of?" Quinn asked.

Aeneas shrugged, eyes closed as if the subject was painful.

Obviously he didn't know.

"Do you mind I make a suggestion?" Quinn asked.

"You are educated in medicine?" Aeneas asked.

"She's educated in everything," Percy said.

"I think you should try and give him more sun," Quinn said. "And fresh air. Perhaps the seaside would be good for him, or high mountains."

"How do you know?" Aeneas inquired.

"His breathing sounds horrid," Quinn said. "Raspy, something in his lungs isn't right. And there is such a… a healing substance called Vitamin D that the sun can give."

"Vitamin D?"

Quinn nodded. "You should try it. I think it'd help, at least a little."

"I make it a habit to trust children of Athena," Aeneas said. "Thank you… Quinn."

Quinn bowed her head and starred at the flames again, as if she was calculating their intense heat and counting the sparks. Percy wanted to ask her what had happened, but he didn't dare. Hazel, Josie or Annabeth could handle that better. Quinn always seemed more receiving towards girls.

"Well, we might as well sing campfire songs since marshmallows haven't been invented yet," Leo suggested. "And a one, two, a one, two, three, four- campground buddies sing a song doo-da-"

"Leo, stop it," Quinn said, cringing.

"Never mind then," Leo said shutting up. "Let's just wait for the marshmallow to be invented."

Annabeth

She'd watched Troy from a crack in the wooden horse's frame. She'd watched the people celebrate and parade around the horse. Even a man so royal he must've been Paris approached the horse- although there was no Helen with him, which was odd. Wasn't this whole 'victory' about them finally being together?

She even saw… well, she saw Percy. Standing in a crowd, handing a mug of something to another soldier who drowned it ASAP… When he was approached by a group of girls Annabeth nearly hissed like a cat. When he turned them down and sent them packing part of her thought _yes _and part of her thought _no, you're not supposed to care_.

This plan of hers? Sucked. Big time. Well, technically it was work in progress and it might eventually work out. But it was still a pain for all parties involved.

Many hours later it was dark and the only people around were soldiers prancing around, loony with victory or lovers sneaking off. And then again, they hadn't seen anyone in ages.

"Elbow," Nikon, squished next to her in the horse, whispered. Annabeth snapped out of her thoughts and tucked her elbow closer to her.

"Sorry," she whispered back in his general direction. It was too dark to see.

"Don't worry about it. This is what I'll remember about this horse. Having your elbow in my ribcage. I'll remember you forever." He whispered back.

"That means so much to me."

He made a noise as if trying not to laugh and someone shushed him.

The whole day they'd been there, squished like sardines, stuck in each other's personal space, not talking, trying to hold in sneezes without having them come out as inhumane noises instead, trying not to move...

This was not a time to have to pee.

"How much longer do you suppose we'll wait?" Someone to her left asked her.

"Anytime," Annabeth replied. It was as dark as it'd get.

There was the sound of shuffling and someone knocked on the ceiling three times; Odysseus. Excitement and dread filled up Annabeth.

At the two ends of the horse, traps doors were opened. The benches lining the horses and the wooden underside of its belly creaked as everybody got up and shuffled out. Soldiers were quick as they grabbed the rope and dropped down to the ground, regrouping in their proper teams.

Annabeth rushed towards Odysseus, followed by Nikon and other Ithacan men.

"Let's go," he said.

Annabeth drew her knife and raised her shield arm.

A group of Spartans was charging the palace. A group of Myrmidons rushed to the front doors. Agamemnon's Mycenaean warriors stood around the Trojan horse, ready to defend those who were still coming out and the horse itself.

They snuck to the front doors as well. The Myrmidons, Achilles' nation, stood there, ready to pull the doors open.

There were very little guards keeping the walls safe, as Odysseus had guessed. So it was easy for one of the archers to take out the three of them that were. His shots were so good –he did all that in one volley- that Annabeth thought he might be a child of Apollo. They snuck to one of the towers, and Nikon created a spark with two stones to light a torch dipped in gas. It lit up. Annabeth lined up with the others to dip her own torch in Nikon's and jogged to another guard tower, others running to towers further from her, some halting at her tower and winking at her like 'here goes nothing'.

This was the signal.

The boats had crept back up to the beeches during the night, after sunset. The armies had unloaded. Now they knew to advance. When they saw the army close enough, they were all to throw their torches into the city so that the Myrmidons knew to open the doors for them.

Annabeth waited. And waited. And waited. And she spotted the first phalanx in the darkness. Battle jitters took over her entire body.

Odysseus was the first to throw his torch down.

And it started.

Quinn

She, Percy and Leo had forced Aeneas and Anchises to go sleep in their proper beds (which Quinn didn't suppose were proper or beds at all) upstairs since they lived here. They promised to keep an eye on Ascanius.

The two boys had fallen asleep around the fireplace. Percy was drooling in his sleep, Leo looked brain dead with his mouth wide open. Quinn had seen them sleep before, this wasn't her first sleepless night after all, so she knew it was normal.

_Well, they could die and you'd be responsible for not saving them._ One of the Oneiroi spoke up.

_Shut up,_ Quinn thought back. _You're just a stupid Oneiroi nymph._

A sharp pain stroke behind Quinn's eyes and she winced and buried her head in her knees.

_Watch your language,_ someone scolded her. _One holding the lower cards shouldn't get loud or obnoxious. That said you should probably just keep your mouth shut forever._

How was she supposed to win when she was fighting against something inside her head? How did you stand up to something that could put you down, physically or psychologically?

_You don't. Sit tight and stay out of the way. That's all you're good for, and it's all you've ever done, now isn't it?_

Quinn didn't reply anything. A sinking part of her thought that it was true.

Sleepless nights…

After all this time, she wasn't going crazy. That small part of her that had always considered it had just been smashed. This was real. This had a mythological explanation. And for the first time she could prove it, and show people, and explain it…

The Oneiroi… That wasn't a name she'd heard often. Maybe once or twice while talking to Lupa or her siblings, possibly when Cate had been trying to flirt with Nico di Angelo by asking questions about the Underworld. But the second she'd seen them the description had fit in her head. Nymphs of the Underworld; dark; mysterious.

She'd have probably stayed in shock (_like a babbling, weak and incompetent idiot, _a voice reminded her) forever and nobody would ever have known why, she never would have been able to explain what she'd just seen or what they were doing to her. Thank the gods for Aeneas and Anchises and Leo. But right now she needed a hug from Cate or Annabeth. Only they could possibly understand what this meant.

Quinn's curse wasn't real.

She'd been six years old when she'd eavesdropped a conversation. Her grandmother lived in the basement of her dad's house, so it wasn't that shocking to hear conversations after bedtime. But this time the conversation a) wasn't in French and b) was with a woman's voice she didn't recognise. So she'd gone to hear it. She shouldn't have listened to anything more. But her parents were talking (and possibly flirting, Quinn couldn't tell) about a curse she had.

"If you insist… Quinn must never marry." Minerva had said.

And the way she'd said it, the weight of her words… Quinn had never been able to shake the feeling, chase the words from her head. She'd always felt nervous around boys her own age, making her an easy target to bullies at school. She'd let down Jedediah in New Rome when he'd tried to kiss her the night before the Argo II took off, she'd possibly lost him forever …

_There went your one and only chance._

And now Quinn knew that none of that, that threat that had always terrified her for no particularly good reason, was false.

She was scared that everything was false now.

Upon recognising her voices for what they were, Quinn had realised that it wasn't a memory at all. It was a nightmare. She'd just believed it was so real… but she knew why for one good reason. The table in the kitchen didn't look the same.

The whole conversation between Minerva and her dad was going on in the kitchen, and the kitchen table was rectangular. That was too new; her father had only bought a new one when she was nine. One detail that had slipped by her because she hadn't seen home in so long… Her memory was false. It'd been made by the Oneiroi and planted in her mind.

Quinn hadn't been cursed until then. Now she was cursed with the task of building herself up again. Building up her defences against these voices who were now twice as loud and thrice as powerful. Building up the way she talked to people. Building up an explanation and apology for Jedediah… Because she should have let him kiss her in New Rome.

_He's probably secretly glad he didn't have to do that._

Quinn jumped to her feet, outraged and prickly-eyed. She had to do something to get her mind busy.

The boys didn't move, but Ascanius did. He was awake. Quinn tip-toed to go see him.

"You should sleep," she said quietly.

"I can't," he said.

"Why?"

"My head hurts."

"I'll get you some water."

"Why?"

"Because it helps. When you're dehydrated, you don't have enough body in your water- I mean, not enough water in your body, which means that you also lose some very important salts that your body needs to be healthy. Your brain, like the little god insides you that controls your body, doesn't understand why, and the parts of your insides that tell them when they're in pain, called the nerves, think that it's because you are in pain." Quinn explained quietly.

"Oh," he said. She wandered to the pail of water on the kitchen table and dipped a cup in it, wiping the edge with a rag. Making a split-second decision, she picked up something she hadn't been sure what to do with until now.

She brought the glass back to Ascanius and sat on the corner of his bed as he drank.

"That feels better," he said handing her the glass. Quinn set it on the side table. "You're really smart."

_That means nothing from a six year old,_ the voices said.

"Thank you," Quinn replied. She felt as if her whole brain got electrocuted, as a punishment for going against what the voices said. Good Zeus…

"You have the same eyes as my mommy." Ascanius said.

"Really?" Quinn asked.

Ascanius nodded. "Papa says she was a daughter of Athena. Are you?"

_Unfortunately for the goddess._

"Yes," Quinn replied. "I am."

"That's why." Ascanius said. Quinn nodded. She reached for the side table and picked something up.

"Do you know what this is?" She asked.

"One of my Mom's toys," Ascanius said. "It's a doll inside a doll inside a doll, except these are turtles. And all the ones inside are broken, so we don't use them."

"Matryoshka dolls, you're right," Quinn nodded. "But I changed it."

"It's still a turtle."

"I changed the inside," Quinn said. "Watch."

She opened up the turtle and showed him the inside wiring.

"What's it do?"

"The green stuff in that little phial is Greek fire." Quinn said. _Hey, we have Greek fire! We can show that to that Adams boy and see how he likes it. What do you think of that?_ "If you pull this piece of wood," Quinn said, "Close the turtle up and throw it, in five seconds it'll explode."

"Explode?"

"Yes," Quinn said.

"Why are you giving me this?" Ascanius asked. _Good question kid. You'll get him killed by giving him something that destructive. You want to do more damage in this world, or what? You're on the right track to becoming an even worst person._

No. He was a legacy of Athena and Aphrodite, and he seemed clever enough, with a good memory. He'd be okay with this. And judging by the horse in the courtyard, he'd need it.

An electric pulse went through Quinn's head. She tried not to wince in front of this sick little boy. The left half of her head went numb with pins and needles.

"I think you should give this to my dad."

"Your dad has swords and spears and shields. He's okay."

"I'm just a little guy."

"Well I'm a little guy too. We've got to trust each other." Quinn said.

_You're not a little guy. You are grotesquely puny and incredibly worthless._

Ascanius took the bomb and put the turtle's shell back on.

"Like that?"

"Exactly," Quinn said.

Ascanius looked at it. "Thank you."

"No problem. Just save it for when you really need it." Quinn said. "And make sure you and your dad and grandfather are far, far away from it."

"Because it'll explode." Ascanius said.

"Right," Quinn said. "Now you should try sleeping, okay? Since your head ache's gone."

"Okay," he said. Quinn opened her hand and he put the bomb there.

"I'll put this on your bedside table, okay?"

"Okay. Goodnight Quinn."

"Goodnight Ascanius," she said.

He fell asleep. The voices promised her horrible fates for him as she watched him fall asleep. She ignored them, which made her head hurt more. How was she supposed to cope with these voices now?

_Don't cope. Back down._ They said.

Jupiter's promise came back to Quinn; _If you survive this journey, if you find the part you are to play behind the scenes; I will reward you greatly once you return to the twelfth legion Fulminata. Until then; you must brave the storm._

She wanted her justice. She wanted her reward. She wanted to play her part. She wanted a reason for all this.

_There is no justice in the Underworld, and the Underworld is here now, you know that. No justice anywhere. Have fun with that._

She'd find a way.

That's when the door was knocked right off the hinges by a kick and someone yelled in Greek at her not to move.

Annabeth

Odysseus had imposed a strict policy of no-pillage of Troy while they were in there. It was a smooth get-in-grab-Helen-don't-even-apologise-get-out mission.

It failed nearly instantly and everybody knew the second the Spartan soldiers started pilling the first house by smashing the windows and kicking down the doors.

Odysseus cussed in Greek.

"What do we do?" Nikon asked.

Odysseus looked around. "Stop the Spartans."

Annabeth found one who was refusing to go forwards.

"Jason!" She tried.

He turned to look at her. "Annabeth!"

"Come with us!" She said.

"You know him?"

"He's a son of Zeus, we went to camp together," she explained quickly to Odysseus. Jason just followed them.

They ran up the hill, Odysseus occasionally shooting down Trojan soldiers who were half awake and half armoured.

A fire was spreading throughout the city and people were screaming and calling out to one another, rushing out of houses whose straw roofs burned. They were running into phalanxes of Greek soldiers who either clubbed or stabbed them, or took them captive, tying their hands with ropes. More soldiers marched into Troy and more blocked the doors. They rushed into homes before the inhabitants came out, and ran back out alone. Swords were swung against glass simply to destroy them. Archers had fallen in after the soldiers and shot anybody who wasn't in armour. The night was dark and starless with a new moon, lit only by fire.

"Where are we going?" Annabeth shouted to be heard.

"The palace," Odysseus said. "Menelaus is the one leading the attack there. And he _won't _be happy."

Piper

She was on the deck, starring at the stars and trying to remember as many myths and constellations as she could, and looking back down towards the city as often as she could.

She looked up and found Pegasus.

She looked down and saw tiny dots of fire lining the towers… and then they were thrown into the city. She got to her feet and scrambled back, crashing into the railing and nearly falling overboard.

"Tyson! Hazel!" She called. "Jo, Ella! It's started!"

Quinn

"LEO! PERCY!" She yelled, jumping in front of Ascanius who woke up groggily. The two demigods woke up and grabbed their arms, and two seconds later Aeneas and Anchises appeared in the stairways. They were both dressed, Aeneas was wearing his armour- Quinn wondered if anybody in this house but the two crew members had slept.

Aeneas drew his sword.

The Greek soldiers drew in gasps.

"You!" They said.

"Leave my home," Aeneas said.

"Your home isn't yours anymore, old man. Your army doesn't even exist!" The soldier said.

Percy struck first, swinging Riptide and shish-kebobing a soldier. Quinn was shocked for a second. Percy wouldn't kill... Maybe Annabeth's plan _was _working.

He pushed the body to the side and got to the next one.

"Move it!" He yelled. "Get out of the city!"

"The defences-" Aeneas started.

"It's too late for that!" Percy said. "Trust us! You have to run!"

Also out of character.

Quinn turned around and propped Ascanius up. As she handed him over to Aeneas he grabbed the turtle from his desk.

"Let's go, let's go, we can get you guys out of here!" Leo said, his eyes wide.

And so they went outside. Percy suddenly harsh, Leo hyper, Aeneas only using one hand because of Ascanius, Ascanius holding a bomb that nobody knew about (yet), Anchises walking unsteadily. Quinn walked up to him and took his arm, taking some support from him.

"Thank you," he said already breathless. This wasn't going to go well.

She grabbed the satchel from the kitchen table and put it over her other shoulder. She needed to be armed with something after all.

Outside the world was chaos. Quinn put a hand on her forehead. It hurt. It hurt so bad. The voices were so loud, the sound outside matched up perfectly… It looked half planned and coordinated attack, half random pillage and violence. Everything was on fire and Quinn saw Leo freeze in his tracks.

Percy pushed him in the shoulder. "C'mon Leo, it's okay!"

"Funny definition of 'Okay' you've got there!" Leo replied.

"The city stands no chance," Anchises whispered in horror.

"We have to get you guys out," Quinn said loudly, hoping to catch Percy and Leo and Aeneas' attention.

"We need to get _us _out," Leo said.

"But the others-" Percy said. Oh, there we go, that was more like good old fatal-flawed Percy.

_Are all dead, _the voices said. _Or on fire, slowly getting there. Wait- no, one down now._ Quinn froze for a second, shocked, but moved on.

"It's illogical for us to just run around looking for each other!" She said. "At best, we can fire up the Argo II for when-" _If, _they reminded her, "-they get out!"

The pounding in her head was making her eyesight blurry, glasses or no glasses.

They ran forwards. Quinn saw a wide array of Greek soldiers in a mass, rushing towards the doors to stop people from escaping.

She shrugged Anchises' arm off for a minute, dug into the bag, got a turtle, pulled the pin and threw it.

It landed and exploded at approximately the same time, sending a mushroom cloud of green smoke and fire bursting out, the blast sending a few people to their feet.

Anchises looked at her in shock.

"You made that?"

_It's the only one thing she can do._

"I like bomb-making," Quinn replied. "Also Ascanius has one in case of emergency," she said, taking his arm and rushing to catch up with the others.

Annabeth

By the time the whole city was out and panicking and trying to make a run for the doors in the walls but getting killed as they went (mostly), even the shabby houses lining the walls, they'd gotten three things done.

1) They'd watch Paris get killed by Philoctetes, a king of Thessaly. Nobody was particularly sad. At least he had a quick death.

2) They'd arrived at the palace too late to spare most of the servants, who were thrown across the floors like bloody carpets. They got to the second floor of the palace and saw King Priam being decapitated by Menelaus. A Queen watched in horror and the way Menelaus starred at her, bloodlust making his eyes gleamed, caused Annabeth run from the group of Ithacan men and slam into Menelaus, sending him off.

"NO!" She screamed at him. "You will do no such thing to her; she made no decision regarding this war!"

"Annabeth!" Odysseus called her back in line and she left.

"You're messing with fire, girl!" Menelaus yelled at her.

"My hands are already scorched, it doesn't matter!" Annabeth yelled back. Jason grabbed her by the arm and they kept going through the palace.

A door was shut behind a group of Spartans who ran to the next, and finished off a maid. A soldier was holding a young baby over the edge of the balcony.

"NO!" Odysseus yelled.

Jason was the first one to sprint forwards and wrap his arms around the man's throat as he ran, knocking him backwards. The baby, luckily, only fell on the guy's torso instead of on the marble floor but he still wailed.

Jason kicked the Spartan soldier in the head and he was knocked out cold.

His eyes were intense and Annabeth knew what he was thinking of. New Rome. The families in there- the seniors, the toddlers, the babies, the untrained that might go through this if they failed their ultimate quest; closing the doors of death and defeating the giants.

Odysseus scooped up the child. Annabeth knew what he thought of too; his son who would be about ten or eleven years old now, but who only lived in Odysseus' memory as a baby.

He passed the baby onto his soldiers and eventually Annabeth got it and the others refused to take him from her.

"Why me?" She asked. "That's just sexist!"

"We don't know what to do with it!" A soldier said. "Aren't you supposed to have maternal instincts deep down?"

"Yeah, _deep, deep, deep _down!" She protested. But she didn't complain. She would keep this baby safe, as possibilities of who he was ran through her head.

3) Odysseus yelled at Agamemnon and Menelaus for letting their men loose and wild and savage (some of them were running around with handfuls of gold in their hands and fancy clothes thrown and draped over their armour).

They abandoned the palace after they saw Helen (well, it had to be Helen judging by her face. For a second Annabeth thought that it was Piper, but it wasn't as if they were _that _unlucky). She was screaming to be let go. Menelaus was yelling back at her, saying he'd burned down Troy for her. She'd yelled back that maybe she didn't want Troy burned for her. Menelaus yelled at her that she was lucky he hadn't killed her on sight and that he'd fought ten years for her and that she was his. That's when a blue spark flew from Helen's hand to Menelaus' and he was startled back, yelling in pain and shock. She looked shocked at what she'd just done for a second, but quickly ran away. Everyone scooted closer to the wall and let her run. Nobody was touching that piece of romantic drama.

"That was a strong one," Jason told Annabeth. "_I _felt it."

"You feel all electric movements," she reminded him.

"No, like, I felt it _hard_, it was strong_." _Jason said.

They followed Odysseus out of the palace and down the streets.

That's when Annabeth saw the explosion of Greek fire and a mass of Greek soldiers crumbling to the ground.

That was totally caused by a bomb. She gave Jason a look.

"What?" He asked.

"That was Quinn," she said.

"What?"

"None of the Greeks brought Greek fire in and that was _one _bomb directed to _one _group of Greek fighters!" Annabeth said. "That was a Quinn-made bomb! She's still in the city, and if she threw a bomb, it must have been to defend others that must be with her!"

"You stay with these guys, I'll go." Jason said.

"Get them back to the ship and you go as well," Annabeth said. "I'll be with you as soon as I can!"

"Gotcha!" Jason said before running off.

"Where'd your friend go?" Odysseus said.

"Grabbing some of my other friends," Annabeth said. "It's complicated."

"Are you going to leave too?" Nikon asked.

"Eventually," Annabeth said. "But I started this with you guys. I'm ending it too."

"'Atta girl," Nikon said slapping her in the back. "What do you want us to do, boss?"

A house crumbled right beside them, sending sparks flying. Someone miraculously jumped out of there and lived, yelling something about Agape being in there.

Someone ran into the building after this Agape girl, and Annabeth's heart squeezed. People were trying to live. People were trying to cope and survive and accomplish and make it through together. Why was it that bad things brought the good out? Why couldn't people just always be good when they weren't compensating for a disastrous event?

Odysseus gave them very simple orders. His blue eyes were sad, bewildered. His plan had been to end a war. This felt as catastrophic and wounding as another war all in itself. His genius had been taken from his and distorted and violated.

"Find someone. Grab them. Get them out of the city. Then we'll have a fire." He drew his sword. "This is not a siege, this is pillage. And I never said my men –and young woman- would participate in one."

Leo

Everything was on fire.

Everything.

Nothing but orange and red glowed.

It made his legs hard to move. It made his brain concentrate on nothing more than what his mother's last words to him when she'd realised her keys were missing, going into the forge- "_That's funny. I know I had them. Wait here,_ mijo. _I'll only be a minute_"_. _Of the smell of the workshop, burnt down metal and tires and tools and project and person…

He heard someone yell to the distance. A man was holding back a woman who was trying to run back into a building, yelling a name and sobbing.

"She's my daughter! He's my son! My children!" She yelled.

Leo looked at Quinn.

"Leo-" she said, warningly. But she was shouldering Anchises and couldn't grab him, and Percy sure as Styx didn't have _anything _on him in the domain of doing stupid things for random people, so he sprinted away from them yelling "GET OUT OF HERE I'LL MEET UP WITH YOU AT THE ARGO" for them to now, and slammed into the flaming building, and then went through the door.

Half of his terror was oh-my-gods-some-child-is-in-here-and-could-die. The other half was _I let this happen once before._ If it happened again, Leo wouldn't get over it.

His ears were filled by only the crackle of fire and the building collapsing slowly but surely. He had to move his butt.

"HI?!" He yelled out. "ANYBODY IN HERE?"

He didn't hear anything but fire. A plank of wood from the top floor fell next to Leo and he scattered away.

"HELLO?!"

That's when he heard coughing. And crying.

He made his way into another room. A flaming curtain was blocking his way but Leo pulled it off. His hand felt warm, as if he was folding fresh laundry.

He saw a little girl, about six years old standing in the back of the room. Her face was covered in soot, her clothes were torn and she looked terrified. She was holding a bundle of blankets to her chest and Leo realised it was a baby, wailing his heart out. She curled up to the wall and got burned when she saw him.

"It's okay," he promised. "It's okay. I'm Leo, okay? Let's go, your mommy's waiting for you outside," he said holding out his arms. "How about I carry your brother?"

It was painful to have to keep his voice calm and slow. He wanted to grab this kid, swing her over his shoulder like a fireman would, and run out. But he forced himself. She was already terrified.

She got up and handed her his brother. He took her hand with his free one and pulled her across the house quickly. The front door had been blocked by the first floor, which was starting to collapse. It could give in and crash into them anytime now.

Leo rushed to a window and grabbed a pot from the kitchen table and threw it to crash it.

"HEY!" He yelled. A few people saw him. Most of them kept running away. "I've got two kids in here, we're trapped!" Leo yelled. People still ran. Leo had a few words of choice for them. Cowards.

"HELP!" He said again. Nobody wanted to come close until someone running broke the crowd. Leo had never been happier to see Jason, who came to a halt right at the window.

"Valdez, what are you doing?"

"Take this baby!" Leo replied. Jason looked surprised (this was most likely never a command he'd received (but he did.

That's when the mother who'd been pleading realised what was going on, fought to be let go of and ran to take her baby from Jason, crying and thanking and praying to the gods.

"Mommy!" The little girl yelled.

"Oh, Melissa!" The mother cried.

"Up you go," Leo told Melissa. He had her in his arms when the whole first floor collapsed against the window, crashing it to the ground. Leo hit the deck, dragging Melissa down with him. She screamed in surprise, and Leo shielded her head until everything had stopped moving. They were in a kind of pyramid of flaming wood, the top floor's flooring making a roof above them. Their roof was being gnawed by flames, so that wasn't good.

"No!" She said. "Mommy! Mommy!"

"Don't worry," Leo said. "Back up, okay?" The flames were getting closer. That wasn't a problem for Leo, but Melissa was no fireproof daughter of Hephaestus.

He started picking at the wall with his bare hands. Melissa screamed in fright.

"It's okay," Leo promised. "Hephaestus is letting me do this, okay? He… he wants me to save you. And I want to save you, so you can't be scared, okay?" Was this how people were supposed to talk to children?

Melissa whimpered but nodded and Leo got back to work. Melissa screamed. She was getting burned and she was coughing now. Leo worked harder to try and pull at the wood that had built the house, but he just couldn't get anything loose.

"NO!" He said between gritted teeth. "I HAVE TO!"

That gave him the energy to finally get something loose and POP- he saw a tiny square of the outside world.

Jason had pushed people back, for their own safeties. He turned around when Leo yelled for him and came by.

"Give me your sword!" Leo said.

Jason didn't even hesitate, passing it through the tiny square. Leo used it as leverage. Melissa screamed and Leo saw that the bottom of her dress was on fire.

"Melissa, roll on the ground, okay? It'll make the fire go away!" She said.

"Why?" She asked trying to flap her dress around.

"Magic!" Leo said. "Go, okay?"

She did and it was put up.

He picked up Melissa in his other hand. She was coughing and he was pretty sure she was going to pass out, and she was already extremely terrified. He used the sword to give him leverage and to dislodge another log. It did, falling towards Jason who probably had to scramble back.

The beams above them dropped lower and they were both on all four. Leo bumped into the log with his shoulder, charging like a bull. The flame had nearly reached Melissa and him. It was a race against fire, it always was.

He bumped into it again. Melissa was crying now, which was better than what Leo would have expected from her. He bumped into it again, yelling and cursing.

Finally the lowest few beams gave out and rolled back. He jumped over Melissa so that the beams overtop would hit him instead of her. She screamed in surprise, but was fine. Leo got up, pushing them off, and picked her up along with Jason's sword. He threw that in a direction to which Jason went to pick it off and handed Melissa to a crying woman.

"Bless you," she said between sobs. "Bless you, you saved my children!"

For the first time Leo realised something. Maybe he was already blessed. He'd saved a baby and a little girl because he couldn't be burned. That had to count for something in a world where everything you did was piled up and used against you. Maybe… maybe his fire powers weren't that bad? Maybe they were a necessary evil, but in the end they'd serve their purpose…

"No," he said. "Bless you. You have to get out of Troy, now! Don't stop running."

And so the woman did.

"That was brave Valdez," Jason said.

"I know, right?" Leo said to hide how terrified he was. "Okay, Quinn and Percy are with Aeneas-"

"Aeneas? Like-"

"-Yeah, _your _Aeneas, first Roman and all. They said we'd meet them back at the ship."

"Annabeth's meeting us there too," Jason said. "There's nothing we can do here. History has to go like it did."

"So let's get out of here," Leo said. Jason nodded and they both sprinted off.

Frank

Tommy had spotted Percy and Quinn in the distance and so he'd run to catch up with them, to make sure that they didn't go do some heroic Styx instead of getting out.

He ran into Annabeth who was carrying a… baby?

"Annabeth!"

"Frank!"

"How many people do you know in here?" A soldier she was with asked.

"Who's the baby?" Frank asked.

"We don't know. We found him at the palace. Someone was trying to throw him over the railing."

Frank recognised the burned blanket wrapped around the child and his shoulders dropped.

"Where was his mother?"

"Mother? I don't know, we didn't see her." Annabeth said.

Frank cussed and ran away, but froze and turned back. "Hazel, Josie and Piper are on the ship. Tommy, Percy and Quinn are on their way. Try to see if you can find Leo, but focus on going back to the Argo II."

"Where are you going?" She asked as he ran away.

"To the palace!" He yelled.

Hazel

Hazel glanced at Frank's firewood. Thirty minutes had passed since Piper had told them she'd seen the first fires in the city.

Hazel felt old. She felt weak and tired and drained and fragile and sickly. But seeing Troy burn made her feel heavier.

The firewood was smoking.

"Don't you dare burn," she said to the firewood, clutching it in her hand.

Frank

He ran through the palace, recognising the faces of the dead servants. He recognised Ocypete, the one who hadn't liked him and who took care of Astyanax on those rare days where Andromache didn't.

He recognised the other guard he'd appeared with when he got to Troy. He was duelling with a Greek.

Frank rushed forwards and stabbed the soldier in the neck. He fell instantly.

"You!" The guard recognised.

"Who's still alive?" Frank asked.

"Barely any servants. The guards are all in Troy, or running like cowards. Priam and Paris are dead," he said. "Cassandra was taken by that king Agamemnon."

"And Helen?"

"Ran from Menelaus, I haven't seen her since."

"And Andromache?"

"I don't know."

"You need to get out of here," Frank said. "It's hopeless."

"I know," the guard swallowed. "They came from the horse…"

"Yeah," Frank said. "They did. Best of luck."

"Back at you," the guard said before sprinting in the other direction.

Frank ran through the corridors, to where Ocypete had led him when he'd met her; Andromache's chambers.

Compared to the rest of Troy, the palace was only slightly on fire. It was going to spread from the curtains and rugs eventually. But nobody had lit it like they'd done with the city. The heat stuck to Frank's skin and he was becoming short of breath. Fire. He didn't do fire.

The door was locked so Frank had to push and kick and shoulder it down.

Inside three guys were taking turns pushing the princess around, and tripping her and not letting her get away, laughing like idiots and basically just playing with their food. Two of them had black eyes. Andromache had two black eyes. The little wooden lion was still in Astyanax's crib.

Someone grabbed her by the waist and spun her before pushing her to the ground. The other picked her up by the wrist, raising his hand but Andromache's fist shot up and hit him in the mouth, forcing him to let her go and cry in pain. She scrambled back and Frank ran up to the guy who was coming at her and swung his sword through the air, cutting off his hand. The guy yelled and Frank yelled back, but it came out like a lion's roar.

He dropped his sword and morphed into the giant feline. He'd only seen lions at the zoo, but it appeared to be enough for a transformation. He jumped at once of the men, immediately pushing him to the ground. His neck swung back, exposing his neck and Frank didn't even think before pawing.

He pounced on the last guy, who knocked his head against the wall and didn't pop back to his feet.

The last guy was on the floor and Andromache was holding a sword the wrong way but holding it none the less.

Reminding himself never to tell Leo about this for fear of being forever haunted by The Lion King's soundtrack, Frank turned human.

"Did I ever mention that?" He asked her.

"No," she said looking terrified.

"Okay, look," he said. "I found Astyanax."

"You did!" She said, her face lighting up.

"He's okay. He's with an Ithacan soldier!"

"An Ithacan soldier!" She repeated, terrified.

"I know her, she won't hurt him," Frank reassured her.

"_Her?" _Andromache asked.

"Long story. Just come on!" Frank said.

They were stopped by Greek soldiers on their way out. Frank did that thing he'd done earlier; roaring without actually turning into a lion. It startled them enough to let them go forwards. He swung his sword to keep other ones away. Most of them were more interested in looting places or playing cat and mouse with Trojans anyways.

It was an enormous amount of people trying to flood through the doors. The barrier of Greek soldiers that had been there earlier was gone.

Andromache grabbed Frank's wrist and dragged him to the side.

"The door," she said. "That you told me you came in through!"

Oh. Right, that…

It was locked of course. Frank pushed against it but Andromache removed a pin from her hair, pushed him aside and picked the lock. She looked up at him, putting the pin back in place.

"What?" She said. "I was once young and rebellious."

Frank had just found the most awesome royal person of all.

They grabbed some panicky people, including a woman with two kids in her arms and a tear-streaked face, and gave people a second exit. Although narrow, it brought more people out of the city once they'd passed the Greeks. When a steady flow of people was coming towards the door, they went in.

The walk was long and it was an awkward hobble-walk-jog, like when a car stopped and let you cross the street.

"Frank," she told him. "You knew, didn't you?"

Frank felt his throat dry up. He knew exactly what she was talking about

"Yeah," he said. "I did. This is famous where I'm from. This whole story, Paris and Helen, the burning… I couldn't tell you."

"I know," Andromache said.

"Are you mad?"

"No," Andromache said. "I'm thankful you stuck around the city."

Someone had brought their llama in the tunnel and Frank felt annoyed because the thing kept making stupid noises and trying to slow down and so forth. He did the roaring trick again, scaring the wits out of everyone. Particularly the llama considering it ran off like a maniac. Good.

When they got out, Frank started looking around for Annabeth and the Argo II. A few Greek soldiers were sitting around a fire they'd built, not participating in anything, not doing anything. One was simply playing an instrument that was a flute/harmonica hybrid. For some reason those lone and sad notes of music made the whole scene even sadder and even more hopeless, even if it drowned out some of the screaming.

Frank walked towards them. Annabeth hadn't had any particular orders to go anywhere when he'd crossed her.

And there she was, sitting with them, Astyanax on her knees, his two fists wrapped around her fingers. She was listening to the flute.

"Annabeth," he called. She turned around, repositioning the baby so that she was cradling him in her arms.

Andromache let out a long sigh and quickly walked forwards. Annabeth quickly handed over the baby.

"Thank goodness," she said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't know what I would've done."

"I'm not the one who found him," Annabeth said. "Odysseus did."

The man sitting next to her had been looking at the fire intensely, and he turned around at the name. His eyes would've terrified Frank if he didn't look so… sad. Irreparably sad.

"Andromache," he said recognising her. "Princess of Troy."

"Odysseus, man of wit," she said holding Astyanax closer. "Only one of us keeps our titles tonight. Well played."

Odysseus dropped his head and ran his hands through his hair. "I feel cheated. I never would have shared the blueprints for the horse if I'd have known this would happen. I'd have let the war go on."

"The entire Greek alliance would've been wiped out." Annabeth said. Frank had a feeling they'd both talked strategy a lot over her time in his ranks.

"There is a difference between innocent men and soldiers," Odysseus said. "And you know it."

Annabeth bowed her head in acknowledgement.

"We should go," Frank said. "The others are all on the boat already, and Annabeth, something tells me we're in a rush."

"Go?" One of the soldiers asked, looking at Annabeth.

They all looked up at her, as if they'd never considered her leaving.

"Nikon…" she started to explain. "I'm on a quest for the gods. It's why I knew so many people in the city. We got to Troy by accident. It was the best accident of my life," she said. "But I have to go now. You saved the alliance; I have to save the world."

"You were part of it, Annabeth." One of them said. "You helped us save it.

Nikon got up and opened his arms. Annabeth gave him a hug and the whole group of surviving Ithacan men clapped.

She turned towards Odysseus.

"I always admired you," she said.

"I admire you, now." Odysseus said.

Annabeth smiled. "I'm glad my mother blessed you," she said getting on her toes to give him a proper hug.

Odysseus hugged her back. "It will be impossible for me to accept any girl my son brings home now, lest she be as admirable as you. And I doubt he'll find one."

Frank could nearly hear Annabeth's insides exploding a little at that compliment.

"I'll never forget any of you," Annabeth told her fellow soldiers. "Really, I've never found a better reason to believe in good and welcoming and warm and pleasant people. I… it came at the right time."

"Not to forget handsome," one called.

Annabeth laughed. "It was an honour to fight by your side."

Frank said goodbye to Andromache.

"I wish you the best," Frank said. "I don't know what that is right now, but I wish it to you."

"As do I," Andromache said. She gave him a one-armed hug, holding Astyanax with the other. "You taught me much, Fai. I'll never forget that."

"Same for me," Frank said.

"I wish Hazel the best too," Andromache said. "Don't worry. I may not know your future, but everything will work out."

And he and Annabeth were off.

Her eyes were looking up at the sky. She swallowed difficultly and took in a deep breath.

"Are you okay?" Frank asked.

"None of them soldiers are going to get home," Annabeth said. "They're all going to die during the Odyssey."

Frank didn't say anything.

They walked up to the cliff where they'd left the boat. Onboard, Leo was lighting a bunch of torches and candles. Someone was getting burns treated. Someone else was wrapped in blankets at the end of a boat. Many people were eating.

Frank and Annabeth dropped onto the ship and Annabeth crumbled against the railing, exhausted.

"Frank!" Hazel said. She ran up to him with speed and energy that he hadn't seen since their quest with Percy and tackle-hugged him. It was a weak tackle, but it could've taken down a kitten so Frank called it that. He hugged her back.

"The wood was steaming and only you and Annabeth were missing and prisoners were being loaded onto the ships and I thought you were dead!" She said, not breathing once in that sentence.

"Hey, it's okay," Frank said. "I'm not dead. Nobody died, we're fine."

"You were great in there," Hazel said. "You found Helen and you convinced us to make her go back and you stayed behind and you made Andromache feel better… I'm glad you know you're great."

Frank had nothing to say back at her. He kissed her forehead.

"Is that everybody? Yes? Tie up your seatbelts ladies and germs, this is your captain speaking and we are _out of here. _Next stop: doomsday._" _Leo said. The boat took off, wobbled a bit in the air, and then sailed past Troy.


	92. LXIV Connor

**hey guys!**

**1, 000 reviews! aoguneoraugnowerignro thank you! I'm so happy! And honored! And proud! And freaking out! Yeay! But I found enough sanity to review a thank-you chapter. The story should be finished by Friday, and on with the next one.**

**Disclaimer: Me no own.**

**Dedication: You guys**

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><p>LXIV<p>

Connor

The first cohort swarmed them straight away as they escaped the going-to-blow-up principia. Reyna held her knife up high and they immediately jumped them. Cabin 5 and Cohort 53 came to their rescue, eager to get Reyna in a position where Joan could be freaking _dealt _with.

Reyna was being pretty intense for someone who'd just recently gotten out of prison taking not one, not two, not four, but three adversaries at once. She swept the legs out from under someone who'd been trying to stab her from behind.

"STOLL!" Jake yelled. He looked over his shoulder and bumped heads with Travis who did the same.

"What?" Connor called, rubbing his head. He had to snap out of it and keep sparring with a guy in Cohort 2 called Willis.

"Principia's going boom in twenty seconds!"

"That's so helpful to hear!" Connor yelled back.

"We've got to move people," Travis said, disarming a Roman who was fighting way too systematically. The legion was good at fighting organised battles; but in the confusion of tonight, the Greeks had made sure that the centurions couldn't group and plan an attack well (like: the centurions were literally duct taped to chairs right now- a handy trick children of Nemesis could do called 'karma suck increase'). Plus their praetor was nowhere to be seen (well, Reyna was about as hard to find as a supernova, she was attracting all the tough guys like a small planet, but none of them were coming back out so it was more like a black hole. Anyways, nobody had seen Joan in a while.)

He grabbed the bullhorn he'd stuffed in his back pocket and blew on it. Just on time; it sounded like a giant booming voice calling out 'ROMANS'. Thank you, power to mess with technology to cause chaos. Except in this case everyone froze (except for a few of Reyna's attackers).

"The principia's going to blow!" Travis yelled as loudly as he could. Everyone with a bullhorn blew them. Cate and the children of Hecate (the children of Trivia were all retired from the legion) made sparks and giant arrows appear in the air. Cate crossed Connor's eyes. She smiled at him and then helped a legionnaire with a bloody leg back to his feet and away from the principia- it looked like Brady.

Everyone scrambled back afraid, some stabbing occurring in the process, but not too much. Reyna's opponents duelled with her to the end, but she dealt with the ones who didn't run away rather quickly. The two dogs took down or closed their powerful jaws on the legs of the other ones.

The children of Hephaestus ran like freaking Hades to get out of the principia. One tripped and got back up, his legs spinning around in frenzy. Someone was half-dragging and half-carrying Harley out.

Reyna was the one at the front of the crowd, helping a few of the Greeks to rush people forwards and away when…

KA-FREAKING-BOOM!

Connor was blown off his feet by the blast and thrown against some girl in armour, knocking his head and nearly getting a concussion off her metallic back. His vision went blurry and his ears felt like they were busted deep inside. He looked over his shoulder as his eyes focused.

And then there was no Principia.

Woops. So much for diplomatic and quick and easy. He could nearly hear Malcolm having an aneurysm up there.

There were sooty ruins, some of which were on fire. Wreckage like flaming tapestries and shards of glass and displayed armour was all over the place, some of it blown far from the principia.

Nobody started fighting after that. Cohorts 1, 2 and 4 just stared down shocked, as if realising right now what kind of planning and resources the Greeks had and how screwed they really were, confused and on their owns.

But as people were getting up, in shock mostly, there was a grunt-like shout of rage and a piercing, surprised scream. Connor paled. He recognised that voice.

It was like the demigods froze. For the first time in a million years Greeks and Romans were pretty much all in one place, but nobody moved or panicked or launched a genocide. They just looked towards the direction of the voice, which was somewhere in the middle of the crowd.

Connor pushed through and he heard an agitation and people calling out. Some were yelling for medics, and someone else yelled "find Colin, find Colin!"

His stomach went down as he pushed past people. Everyone was backing away from something and Connor's brain was so fed up and whizzing with possibilities that he was sure the whatever-it-was couldn't be as bad.

He saw Cate lying on the ground. He recognised her frame and the frizzy hair sticking out from under her helmet. Lou Ellen was taking helmet off. She was lying on her stomach but Lou Ellen was slowly putting her on her back after tossing aside her helmet.

"Cate!" He yelled. He ran up to her side and touched her shoulder. Lou Ellen looked at him and backed up. Cate's midriff was bloody. It was seeping from the bottom of her chest plate, whose metal was split and pointing outwards and showing a solid pierce wound oozing and pouring blood. She'd gotten… no…

"Oh my gods… what happened- I don't-AH!" Her voice was weak until she yelled in pain.

"Medic!" People kept calling.

"Will- Maggie," Connor called for all the medics he knew. "Jazzie, Marina, Pete… Heck, _Travis _even!"

Will Solace and a roman medic named Maggie burst from the crowd, Maggie holding a first aid kit and wearing gloves.

"Where does it hurt Cate?" Maggie asked.

"Stomach," she said. "Oh gods, oh gods…" Will pushed Connor away. He sat in the grass, not seeing what was going on. Cate hissed in pain, he assumed the medics had touched her, and Connor scrambled for her hand but someone, Lou Ellen, held him back.

"It hurts," Cate told the medics who were talking too fast and quietly for Connor to make out anything clear. Connor tried to push himself from Lou's grip but someone else caught his other shoulder- Travis.

"You're good, Cate," Connor said trying to be encouraging. He didn't see the medics work, but he heard Cate scream every time someone touched her, or moan, or catch her breath. He promised that she'd be okay, but his stomach felt upset and he was clueless, and he was going to pass out and Lou Ellen and Travis wouldn't let him get closer and he was so worried he wouldn't even get started on it and the bloody hole in her _freaking armour _kept popping up to mind.

"Connor," Will said turning around and talking to him. He got up to be at Will's height. He moved towards Cate, but Will held him back. "Connor, man, we can't treat her."

"What? What do you mean you can't treat her? You've got to treat her, she's a legionnaire." Connor said. Gosh, Will was out there tonight.

"No," Will said. "Because we'd have to remove her armour to do that. And right now, the armour's the only thing holding her together."

"What?" Connor asked after a second of dead shock and silence that he could easily call the worst moment of his life.

"Man, she's ripped apart inside. The stab wasn't just a stab it was…" He shook his head. "We can't do anything."

"No," he breathed out.

"She's just going to bleed and…"

"No. No way man. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that is not cool, the universe _cannot _do this now," he said.

"Connor," a croaky voice called.

Cate's voice snapped him to reality and got his priorities straight. He walked up to her and knelt, stroking her hair and cradling her head in his lap. He played with her hair.

"You heard Will?" He asked finally.

"It's hard not to. My midriff's ripped apart, not my ear," she said.

"Not funny Katie-Cat-Cate." He said.

"Is it hilarious?"

"No," Connor said.

"I feel it, Connor. They're right. You know that, don't you?"

"No I don't, and I like it better that way."

"You might as well- ah!- you might as well be enlightened," Cate said. Her voice was quiet and slow and peaceful- as if her body was shutting down. She was covered in blood. It was leaking onto Connor's hands. They felt sticky.

"Okay, look," he said. "There… There's no war. We're at the park in New Rome. The one you pass when you're heading to the post office, the one with the massive swing set and the old trees." He said. He didn't want her to think about her dying. "And there are all kinds of clouds in the sky." He didn't want to think of her dying

"What are they like?" Cate asked. She looked sick all of a sudden and she coughed out blood, covering Connor's jeans and hands. He ignored it and kept talking.

"All sorts of things, Katie-Cat-Cate. Bunnies, fish, hearts, birds, cotton balls…"

"Cotton balls?" She asked. Her lips were blood red in the light of the few torches and flashlights that had come out.

"It's the best I can do. And the sky is so blue, it hurts to look at, but we do anyways. You and me, Cate."

"Pretty," she said, closing her eyes to fantasize.

"Sure is," he said.

Hopefully to fantasize. Connor's heart thumped and he fought to keep it out of his voice and physical aspect. Her eyes half opened again, pretty chocolate brown.

"I love you," she said. Too much blood had poured from her wound. "You'll stay with me?" She asked. People didn't ask much of Connor usually, but that was a big request.

She cringed.

"I'd stay with you if we were in a burning building." He promised.

"You better hope I'm a quick dyer then." She said.

"I hope only what you hope," Connor said. She cringed in pain. Everyone was watching, the weird mix of legionnaires and campers.

"I want this to be over soon," she said. She threw up blood again and Connor didn't filch. "But I don't this to be over soon."

"Okay," Connor said pushing her bangs out of her face. How long had they been there? A million years? Connor had never felt more powerless. Connor had never been more scared. "And in this park," he said, "Your head's on my knees, like it is now, but it's because you think the view is better. So it gives me the perfect shot to reach into my pocket and pull out the ring and dangle it over your face and ask you if you want it and if you want me forever. Like a fairy tale ending."

"What's the ring like?" Cate croaked.

Time was running out.

"Whatever you want it to. But it has little blue stones. You love blue. With diamonds on it, because diamonds last forever."

"We're not diam-" she said finally. He didn't know what to say to make it better.

Her eyelids slowly drooped.

She breathed for a few more seconds after passing out.

Everything inside of Connor broke and shattered and crushed and died.

And then she didn't anymore.

One minute and a half. That's how long it took for her to bleed to death.

Connor knew what he should've said now.

"I love you".


	93. LXV Reyna

**Guys... I legit got forty-some reviews last night... Oh my gods, I should kill people more often! (Just kidding, all deaths are pre-planned)**

**Anyways, hi!**

**I see you guys all reacted the same way. Basically just freaking out in all possible ways. **

**But I am glad that nobody tracked me down and murdered me in my sleep last night, although its possible some of you are simply caught in the traffic. **

**And I need to make one thing clear: I am not bringing Cate back from the dead. It's official; you heard it from Connor; she's dead. I will not bring her back for that is cheesy. You must learn to cope with your feels (I'm trying to toughen you all up for when The Mark of Athena ends on a to-be spectacularly horrible cliffhanger). **

**Disclaimer: Me no own.**

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><p>LXV<p>

Reyna

Her vision went red.

She wasn't sure if it was the dead legionnaire or the fact that her wound had Imperial Gold written all over it, or the fact that this was the second half-blood to die under her praetorships from a wound from behind.

Maybe it was that Cate had died in a battle in which she'd been freed.

"Someone's running towards New Rome," a walkie-talkie clipped at a nearby counsellor's waist declared in Malcolm's voice- she remembered him from an IM they'd received during a senate meeting.

Coward.

It nearly shocked her how cowardly one person could be in less than twenty minutes without dying of embarrassment. It made her angrier, anyway.

Reyna pushed through the crowd who was too shocked to part for her and knelt next to Cate. Her midriff was bloody, her chin and neck were coated too. The shaking hands Connor held her with were bright red in the light that someone had brought by lighting torches. Her head hadn't moved from Connor's lap or even turned away from him.

For a second Reyna thought of sunflowers and how they always turned towards the sun.

She drew Cate's sword from her side and looked down at the daughter of Trivia.

She hadn't felt the rage go through her since the pirate ship battle with Hylla, but she knew what it meant. It meant that her instincts were about to sweep her off her feet and throw her into a battle and a series of moves she wasn't sure that she could handle. But she could.

Malcolm

All walkie-talkies were off and Malcolm didn't trust what the mass in the center of the forum meant now that the Principia had blown. He saw Reyna; he assumed it was Reyna because the glint of light off a sword wasn't accompanied by the reflection of light on armour; run out towards New Rome, about a kilometer behind the running figure.

He and Nyssa landed and rushed to the center, pushing past people who were trying to push past others. Nyssa warded some of them off with a wrench and a bullhorn (he loved his girlfriend).

Nyssa swore under her breath and Malcolm had to cover his mouth.

Cate was the one lying on the ground. Travis and Lou Ellen were on the sidelines looking horrified. Reyna was knelt next to her, holding a sword that was glinting clean- freshly cleaned and polished, probably Cate since her scabbard was empty.

"I'll kill her with your sword, Cate." Reyna promised.

And she pushed through the crowd and left before anybody could do anything.

After Reyna had gone Connor had started crying.

A guy with almond shaped eyes and distraught, windblown hair walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, trying not to cry himself.

"Josh," he said. "Josh, oh my gods, she's…"

"I know, bud." Josh said.

Travis walked up.

"Connor, get up man," he said. "Con, Conner you can let go of her now."

"No," he said. Tears rose up to his usually playful and happy eyes. "No. Don't make me."

"Conner," Travis said. "I'm not gonna make you, but you have to."

"No," Connor sobbed.

"Connor, it doesn't make a difference if you do, she's gone," Travis said patiently trying to hold himself together too.

Connor sobbed but he didn't repeat 'no'.

"Con," Travis said. "You're not the one that let go, she did, and it's not because she doesn't love you. Please?"

Malcolm didn't think that he could watch a second more of it.

Reyna

She ran down the path to New Rome. She could faintly make out one person in the dark, the path unlit. Reyna knew the way by heart. Her instincts were guiding her.

Her mind had done a zero-in on Joan, like a radar in her mind had opened up, and she knew what that meant. Between her and her step-sister, one of them wasn't going to make it out of this.

Joan turned onto a downhill path. Reyna's legs were unstable but she just ran faster when she realised that she was heading towards Temple Hill.

That was lit at least, with the undying flame to Vesta, the torches lining the paths and lighting the insides of the temples.

Joan was heading for the temple of Jupiter; patron of the praetors.

_Please, _Reyna thought. _You're not Rome's praetor. _

She let Joan pick the playing field. She was too angry to think of a way to change her path, Cate's dead body an image burned inside her head and Connor's sobs a sound stuck on replay...

A praetor wouldn't let that happen. But she had, so now she'd fix it.

The two dogs had stayed behind and Reyna doubted they'd come. Something about how she'd rescued them from Blackbeard's ship made them so in tune with Reyna; sometimes she didn't even have to give orders.

She jumped up the paths of Jupiter's temple. It was lit only by torches and candles hanging on the walls.

"JOAN!" Reyna yelled. "Joan Golan! Daughter of Mars! Make yourself known!"

Her voice echoed in the empty and humongous temple, and no reply came back.

"Or are you still a coward?" Reyna said. "Are you going to stab me from behind or face me? Face me like a daughter of war!"

That's what she remembered Joan was most known for before all this murdering-Octavian and take-over business. She'd nearly killed the legionnaires who'd come to find her by hiding in the roof of a barn and pouncing when…

Reyna rolled out of the way and Joan hit the floor like a cat. Reyna got back up quickly and held her sword at the ready.

"You're demanding your doom, Miss Praetor," Joan said. She was wearing the purple cloak and golden armour Reyna was so used to having on her. She'd definitely have the advantage; Reyna was more vulnerable and easier to hurt in torn sweats and a tank top.

"I'm demanding justice," Reyna said. "How dare you? How dare you?"

"How dare I what?" Joan asked.

"How dare you ask that?!" Reyna sneered. "How dare you hit a soldier from behind? And do it twice. How dare you call yourself praetor after you've murdered a legionnaire during the war games; and how dare you call yourself one again after killing another?"

"I don't dare," Joan said. "I do."

"I don't forgive," Reyna said. "I punish."

She lunged towards Joan and nearly disarmed her, but the daughter of Mars soon pulled herself together and engaged Reyna in the quickest duel she'd ever gone through. More intense than her training with Jason and Percy; both she and Joan wanted -_needed- _to win equally, and neither of them was holding back any.

Reyna was too angry; Joan didn't think that way- didn't think that a fight may last long enough for a whole collection of endurance to be used. Both of them were at fault.

Reyna had Joan cornered against a wall when Joan knocked the sword out of her hands. Before processing what she was doing, Reyna jumped and with a high kick that would've made an Olympic judge proud, kicked a candle off its holder on the wall. The wax fell to Joan's face and she yelled as it burned and the fire caught to her hair. Reyna picked up her sword and stabbed at Joan's shoulder in a split second's time. The daughter of Mars yelled in pain again as she dropped and rolled away from Reyna, holding her sword and injured arm against herself.

Skirting around the edges if the temple, she ran before Reyna could decide which spot was the weakest and where she should strike on Joan's anatomy.

Reyna followed the smell of smoke and burn left by Joan's hair. Her senses were fine-tuned like they always were in battle. Her mind was ten times as strong, her sight and smell and hearing were ten times more extreme, and her skills were twenty times as sharp.

Reyna followed her to the temple of Mars, which was unlit and gloomy. Reyna couldn't see well, nor could Joan. This was the most cowardly move Joan had yet to make. Go to her father's temple and hope for help- there was no other strategical reason. This made Reyna angry. You did not _ask for help from a god _in a fight.

But it also fired her up because this obviously meant that Joan was afraid. And if she could settle her pride down and beg for help like a dog to whom a Milk bone was showed, she was afraid for her life.

Joan was only a shadow now, in the dark. Reyna had to remember that her left arm was wounded and that she shouldn't worry about it too much, but to worry anyways because you never knew in fights.

The temple's layout had two exits since both the front and the back weren't open. Reyna's legs were getting tired after her sprint to Temple hill, the chase from temple to temple, sword work and that candle-kicking flip. That was a lot after about a month of basic inactivity. She would have to make sure that Joan stayed contained because if she bolted again…

Joan turned around and stroke first- a very simple move that Reyna had learned to disarm in five minutes as an untrained half-blood. But she missed her shot, overthinking it, and the sword stayed in Joan's hand. She needed to focus herself, and find a way to defocus Joan. This was the best fighting Reyna had ever seen her do.

"You should have realised," Reyna said, "That if the Greeks didn't kill you upon invasion, I would. After what you did to Gwen? Octavian? And Cate? You're a murderer."

"We're demigods. We're killers of monsters, but there aren't that many differences between human and beasts." Joan said. "What does that make you if you win this fight, hmm? Not-a-murder? A peacekeeper? Are you going to start wearing a mask and defend justice?"

"Who said I wasn't one before?" Reyna said.

Joan let out a short laugh. "You're too weak spirited," she said.

"Oh yeah?" Reyna asked. She got Joan's sword hooked against hers, the pressure keeping them frozen there. "John Mayer, Provost –that's a discipline keeper in old ships. Thomas Duncan, surgeon above six different pirate ships, notably Blackbeard's. Gordon Fray, the sharpest eyed lookout in the seas. Jeremy Nicholls, a cook. Benedict Roberts, Henry Bennett, Elliot Smith and James Williams; all were pirates. You have nerve to call me weak spirited."

Joan didn't say anything, but she pushed Reyna's sword backwards.

For a second Reyna's stomach felt as if she was aboard a boat and her nose was filled with the smell of blood and sea salt, but when she fell to the floor she snapped out of her episode.

Joan was on her immediately, but Reyna rolled away, got up and charged Joan's back causing her to trip forwards, but not as much as Reyna would have liked.

Joan pushed her away, and Reyna grabbed her sword and blocked.

"You're weak, Reyna. Why do you think I had you mistreated?" Joan said, turning around. Reyna kept stabbing, but Joan kept meeting her stabs. "Exactly in case this happened. I wanted you crumbled and submissive and under my control."

"Then you should have had me killed," Reyna said. "Submissive is not in my vocabulary."

That's when time froze for Reyna.

She saw the way Joan's sword was set up.

It was exactly the way her sword had been last time she'd sparred with Percy and Jason.

And the way Reyna was holding her own sword...

Like Percy had been holding his sword when...

She twisted the hilt and made contact exactly like he had; using the only trick Percy Jackson had ever taught her about warfare and swordplay.

And the sword clattered out of Joan's hands.

Reyna rammed into Joan to stop her from getting to that sword, pushing her aside. But Joan grabbed Reyna's shoulders and tried to bring her down. Reyna knew that judging by her built and better knowledge at wrestling and nutrition Joan would win.

Reyna stabbed with her sword down and hit Joan across the leg, cutting through her armour in a spot above the greaves she knew wouldn't be covered since Joan was taller than she was, and then down right on the foot, through her sneakers. Joan hit her in the eye and the whole area prickled with painful pins and needles. That would be black.

They were both screaming in pain.

Joan hit Reyna in the jaw and she felt her mouth fill up with blood. Reyna bonged on Joan with the weapon's hilt right where Joan had an appendicitis scar (the things you learned from the praetorian files) and Joan let her go in pain. Reyna took a step back, swung her sword with more calculation and pressure and speed than she ever had… and presto.

Her whole throat was ripped up and Joan immediately coughed out blood.

"Cate did that," Reyna said. "You wouldn't know because you ran away, of course. But she was coughing up blood."

Joan staggered around for a bit, her hands to her throat. Her knees gave out from under her and she fell to the ground.

"Except _I _let you see your injury."

Reyna walked up to her. "You were foolish to come to this temple to see if your father would help you. Your father is the patron of warriors. He helps and supports and guides them. But you, Joan are not a warrior. You're a girl with a sword. And now you're a girl with nothing."

And then Reyna walked off, letting her die in peace.

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><p><strong>ANNONS!<strong>

Guest- HI! Thank you so much! Don't worry, the statue Leo made will not be forgotten (I'm too proud for coming up with it to do that :P) Leo will bring it up eventually. Both issues are going to be addressed in today's posts :P

Blayze- Don't worry, he won't. Conner's a tough one.

Guest- Hi! I'm glad you like it so much!

Wierdofanpop- I'm gonna start myself a rep here, aren't I? Mmmm butterbeer latte… TUMBLR IS EPIC!

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Kayce- SUCCESS!


	94. LXVI Malcolm, Frank, Piper

LXV

Malcolm

Reyna appeared alone.

She caught up with the two medics who were carrying away Cate's body on a stretcher. Reyna stopped them and she pushed the white sheet off of her just enough to slide the sword back into the owner's sheath before turning back to the people of Rome and Greece. She had a cut on her cheek that she probably wouldn't remember owning, her legs were shaking and her arm was bleeding.

She stopped in front of Dakota and Gwen and said something low to them that Malcolm assumed was military related considering he stood up straighter and nodded.

She stopped by Brady whose leg was cut, and Britt who was holding him up. Same thing.

She stopped in front of Malcolm.

"You're the one who came up with this whole plan, weren't you?" She asked.

"Yeah," Nyssa said for him. She squeezed his hand. "He is."

"It was brilliant," Reyna said. "Marching right into the Fort would have… would have caused more bloodshed than this. I am forever thankful."

Malcolm felt lost. Part of him was fangirling.

Nyssa kicked him in the shins to snap him out of it and get him to say something appropriate and/or/preferably inspirational.

"We're allies," Malcolm said. "You and me, Rome and Greece, demigods and demigods."

"Yes," Reyna said. She turned towards the general demigods.

"Joan is dead," she said. And most people in attendance cheered. At least there was that.

Reyna turned to Malcolm and Nyssa.

"We need everybody in one place," Reyna said. "I don't want the fourth cohort running and we need to organise the troops. Also I'm assuming that you're all hungry."

"Yeah," Malcolm said. "That 'yeah' also applies to food."

"Isn't the principia where you'd go usually?"

"Obviously not now," Malcolm answered Nyssa.

"Everybody head to the dining pavilion," Reyna said.

"Sit in cohorts and cabins." Malcolm said. It'd be easier to gauge damage.

"The injured can be taken by the medics and children of Apollo who qualify to the Prin- Praetorian villa and treated. We'll get everything sorted."

And everyone did. Dakota and Britt stayed behind to give Reyna some backup if someone attacked, and gave her knife back to her.

In the dinning pavilion the nymphs reacted quickly and brought platters and platters and plates and bowls and plates of food out.

Malcolm's eyes searched the area for Connor, but he couldn't find him. Nor could he find that guy, Josh, or Travis.

The Romans were all lounging and it took a second of awkward and confused glancing for the Greeks to do the same, although nobody ate until Reyna sat down. The fifth cabin insisted on guarding the area to make sure nobody ran out. Reyna invited all the counsellors and Nyssa to the Praetor's table, and asked them to explain what she'd missed about the siege. No counsellor showed for the Hermes cabin.

"Genius," she said. Malcolm liked daughters of Bellona. They could appreciate brilliance in a plan and execute them, apparently. His head hurt from all of it though. "Does anybody mind if I eat?"

Butch said no, his mouth full. Reyna grabbed half a grilled cheese.

"How long since you've last eaten?" Malcolm asked.

Reyna thought for a second, counting on her fingers absent-mindedly.

"Four days," she said.

Butch choked, Reyna kept eating. She ate more civilised than most half-bloods did after having six hours between feedings. Good Lord.

A medic came by and reported to Reyna. Reyna called him on it and told her to talk to everyone at the table.

He announced that there were a total of twelve injured demigods, and two deaths in the whole affair. A Greek son of Nike who was too close to the principia when it blew- but he'd come back to life a few seconds ago and only had some broken ribs now. And of course Cate, which made the whole table silent.

Malcolm had accepted to make her part of the plan. Malcolm had sent Connor into Camp for information. Her death was Malcolm's fault by repercussion and he'd always know it. He'd always regret it.

Cate hadn't come back from the Underworld yet.

"We doubt she will," the medic said. "Gut feeling."

"Why?" Malcolm said. "The Underworld is chaos! Its justice doesn't mean a thing."

"Something's got to be holding her back," the medic said. He hesitated. "Her body's looking worst and older than it should."

"How's Connor?" Reyna asked. The medic frowned.

"Colin," Malcolm said.

"Oh. Not good," the medic said. "He's in shock. His brother and the daughter of Trivia-"

"Hecate," Drew cut in. "Her name is Lou Ellen and she's a daughter of Hecate and she's Greek, and also his best friend so I'd work on getting her identity right if I were you."

"Okay, yes, her." He said. "I don't think they're helping. It's like he's not hearing us. Not physically of course…"

"Leave him," Reyna said. "Let him process what just happened."

"Yes ma'am."

"Also, although I don't consider her a soldier at this point, Joan is deceased as well."

"Where is she?" The medic asked. "Well, her body."

"In the temple to Mars."

"Rather fitting, Ma'am."

"It wasn't my choice," Reyna said. "Leave her there. We'll deal with that later."

"Yes Reyna. Your arm is bleeding. And your cheek. Also your jaw looks weird."

"I know," Reyna said. "Everything tastes like blood."

"Go get yourself healed up," Malcolm said.

"I'll be fine with ambrosia," she said. The medic didn't look so sure. "Trust me. I'm a daughter of war. If we needed medical care every time we got hurt it would never end."

"True story," Clarisse nodded.

Reyna finally let the medic wrap an ace bandage around her right arm to make him feel better and she accepted a big ice pack to cover both one of her eyes and her jaw. As promised, the god's food and drink was already taking its toll on her cheek.

"Another thing you should probably know," Malcolm said. "Our camp is destroyed."

Reyna looked at him eyebrows furrowed, swallowed and asked why.

Malcolm told her that they'd had to abandon it while its defences were weak to come help. She put her icepack down on the table.

"After the war, when Jason, Percy and Annabeth get back, we'll figure something out," Reyna said. "Camp Jupiter is protected by magical boundaries of its own. You look exhausted," she took Malcolm.

"I don't like being the leader," Malcolm said. "Like, I did it now and huzzah and all. But I'm never doing this again. I'm leaving that to Percy and Annabeth."

Reyna smiled. "You did well, Malcolm."

An [i]_aurae* _rushed through the dinning pavilion, creating a brush of wind and appeared next to Reyna, whispering hurriedly in her ear. The blood went down from Reyna's face.

"But I'm afraid that Percy and Annabeth aren't here, so you'll have to tough it out and make one last plan." Reyna said.

"What is it?" Malcolm asked

"What did she tell you?" Clarisse asked.

"Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angelos, Philadelphia and Detroit," she listed. "Are all being attacked. Since yesterday, apparently, and the troops there are making their way and zeroing in towards New York City."

"Towards Camp?" Someone asked confused. "It's destroyed."

"No," Reyna said. "Towards Olympus. According to the nymph spies who were defending camp, there are troops going towards Olympia, Athens, Rome, Cairo, Baghdad, Tehran, Beijing, London, Paris, Berlin, New Delhi, and New York at the exact same time all over the world."

"Greece, Italy, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, China, England, France, Germany, India, the United States…" Malcolm said. "The capital cities of places who hosted Olympus; Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia..."

"Right," Reyna said.

"That's no coincidence," Lou Ellen's substitute, a girl named Kiki, said.

Malcolm got up. "It looks like we have more work to do."

Frank

Everyone's eyes were stuck on the humongous set of ruins and flames, the small fire of the Ithacans, the boats which were being filled with women and children taking as slaves as Leo flew past Troy. It was quiet. Nobody said anything.

They passed through a cloud, got colder, and saw nothing.

"Umm, guys?" Piper said after a while. "I know that this is going to be a lot to take in but we're not going to have a better time like, ever."

"What is it, Piper?" Tommy asked. He had a scratch from his ear to his jaw.

"Ella gave me the last prophecy," Piper said. "The last part of the Sibylline books that talks about our quest."

And she told them what Ella had said.

[i]_ "The giant's birth to make the earth strong_

_Together the three elders shall do no wrong_

_Two will die, one will stay_

_And fates unaware if the world to see another day."_ [/i]

"Frigg," Percy said. "Why is it always the three elder gods?"

"I hear you," Jason said glumly. "Hazel? You're about to get introduced to something you won't like but rest assured; none of the cousins like it either."

"Stop complaining, you," Percy said. "You can dish out the 'let's represent the elder god Zeus' duty on Thals. I can't do that. My brother's good for and at a lot of things, but not at being a half-blood of prophecy."

"What?" Hazel asked.

[i]_Freak, she can't go and fight to Big 3 level combat,_ [/i]Frank panicked nearly immediately.

"Two will die?" Annabeth asked. Her eyes were wide as if she understood something. Frank was too tired to ask.

"But one will stay," Josie said. "See? The glass is at least one third full."

"Josie now is not the time." Jason warned.

"So when is the time?" Josie countered with a snap.

"The giant's birth…" Quinn said. "What does that m-m-m-m-" She couldn't get the word out.

"Mean," Annabeth finished. "She's right. They're all born already. I have a feeling that this doesn't mean rebirth," she said.

"Maybe there's one that isn't born yet," Frank said.

"Maybe Gaia's pregnant," Leo said. "It'd explain the hormones."

"I doubt that," Percy said. "I think she scared away all the other gods by this time."

"That's logically impossible," Annabeth said.

"Not really, Gaia's terrifying." Percy said.

"I meant- oh," she groaned. "Gaia is not pregnant, okay?"

"What if there's a giant who's about to have a kid?" Jason said.

"Do girl giants even exist?"

"Yes," Annabeth said. "Her name is Periboia."

"But they're all brothers and sisters, so how does that make sense?" Hazel asked.

"Since when does that stop powerful mythological beings from reproducing?" Leo asked.

"Do you lot need help?" Josie interrupted, her voice dry and clear.

Everyone stopped talking and looked at her.

"Pardon?" Jason asked.

"Help," Josie said. "H-E-L-P. Is the future perhaps troubling you? 'Cause, oh, I don't know, maybe you could ask for help from someone who [i]_happens to know it._ [/i]_" _

Everyone was quiet.

"You never even thought of it, did you?" Josie asked. "That maybe if you [i]_asked_[/i]there was something I could do?"

Nobody said a word.

"Josie?" Annabeth asked. "You're right. And I'm sorry. Can you please explain to us what you know about this line?"

Josie took a deep breath, eyes closed.

"I'm not allowed," she said.

"What?"

"I'm not allowed to tell the future," Josie said. "It's one of these rules."

"There's a rule book?"

"No one told me, I just _know."_

"Rachel tells us stuff aside from prophecies all the time," Leo said.

"Yeah, but Rachel's a freak," Josie said, to which nobody objected in all respect to the oracle. "But…" she hesitated. "I can show you."

"What do you mean you can-"

Piper

Frank's excellent question was interrupted when everything in the world started zooming in, flying straight to Piper's eyes and then suddenly she saw all black. What emerged from it was a new setting that she didn't recognise.

The room was carved out of a rock, so it appeared. It was empty, save for what looked like a giant checkerboard. Piper soon realised that it was a map carved right into the floor, with giant pieces representing armies of demigods, capital cities, gods both minor and Olympian and, yes, giants. In the middle of the room there was a pit in the ground filled with bubbling water. For a second Piper thought that Gaia had her own Jacuzzi to complete her lair.

She had only seen the figure once, at Crown Fountain in Chicago. Gaia. Khione was with her, wearing a crisp snow white dress. Newly added to her outfit was a shawl of intervened leaves, green grass, sand, tiny rocks.

"Is everything needed there, Milady?" Khione asked the sleeping figure.

"[i]_Mmm_[/i]," the sleeping goddess mused. She picked a satchel off the ground and walked up to the cauldron.

"Are you sure this magic is to be reckoned with?"

"[i]_Of course_[/i]," Gaia said. "[i]_Now that the daughter of Mars finally got rid of that daughter of Trivia, Cathleen Amjad, she is taken care of and solidly held away from the doors of death; and that Hecate will have her hands full with Klytios, nobody powerful or in the know enough will be there to stop me_. [/i]"

Gaia stood into the Jacuzzi, her earth robes floating at the top and dissolving in the boiling water. Piper was suddenly filled with a sense of dread and foulness and downright panic, and the air around her felt like it was humming with these emotions. Like this wasn't supposed to happen. Like this was a nightmare the world wanted to hide away from. The fates themselves were trying to rearrange and avoid this. The whole universe was crying.

Gaia took a phial of blood.

"[i]_I offer the_ _army of Nico di Angelo, son of Hades,_[/i]_" _she dropped it in the Jacuzzi which turned blood red. She took out a phial of golden ichor; the blood of immortals.

"[i]_I offer the lightning of Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus._ [/i]_" _Before the water even turned gold she took out a vial of silver hair.

"[i]_The gift of Periclymenus of Ya Zhang,_ [/i]_" _she said. The water turns a deep ink black spotted with silver streaks that slithered across the pool and turned it completely silver. A phial of spit.

"[i]_The passion and energy of Mitchell Duncan, son of Aphrodite."_ [/i]

A vial with curly brown hairs.

[i] "_The Panic of Grover Underwood of the Satyrs," _[/i]the water turned the dark brown of Grover's hair and fur.

A vial of blood.

[i] "_The youth of Matthew Chase."_ [/i]

A vial of dark, dark blood.

[i] "_The honour of Jedediah Adams, son of Virtus."_ [/i]

The water turned a deeper red than ever.

[i]_ "And the soul of Sammy Valdez,"_ [/i]Gaia said. She raised her arms and a silvery ghost boy that looked nearly exactly like Leo rose from the ground, struggling against some force that Piper couldn't see.

"They'll stop you!" He yelled. "Hazel and- and this guy Leo whoever he is!"

Gaia dropped her arms and Sammy was engulfed by the water.

It began to boil and Gaia stepped out, the dirt making her dress humid and damp.

"Is that..?"

"Yes Khione," Gaia said. "It is normal."

The snow goddess looked nervous anyways.

The bubbles at the surface started keeping their shapes and changing into other forms. Bumps and lumps… Something rose from the ground, all silver, dripping liquid.

"I give you Asykas," Gaia said. "The newborn giant."

Piper was suddenly back on the Argo II, panting and looking around. Only Josie wasn't thrown somewhere random on the deck and panting and freaking out.

Annabeth so happened to be lying down in the crook of Percy's arm.

"Oops," Josie said although it didn't sound like an 'oops'.

Upon realising this Annabeth pushed herself up and moved away quickly. Percy starred at his arm for a while, and then starred back at Josie.

"What the fugg was that?" Frank asked suddenly.

"I can't talk about the future or I'll end up like Cassandra." She said, "Cursed by Apollo- although never seeing him ever is a debatable curse. It's a rule. We see, we do not touch, we do not speak, we do not warn."

"But you just did?" Leo asked.

Josie ignored that. "But I can show. Or, at least I can. Not sure about the other idiots with the gift- curse- sight, whatever."

"Can we concentrate on what you showed? I'm freaking out. Who is Asykas?"

Annabeth and Quinn were having a telepathic conversation again.

"I don't remember him from any myth." Annabeth said.

"Nor do I," Quinn said.

"Which means that Gaia just created a giant-"

"-By using the most powerful thing each hostage had-" Quinn said looking pale

"Which would make him nearly invulnerable," Annabeth finished.

* * *

><p>The End<p>

6:30, September 4th 2012

4:35, September 5 2012

Forever scripting,

HecateA

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><p><strong>Next book, same time, same place:<strong> The Newborn Giant


	95. The Newborn Giant: I Piper, Annabeth

**Hi you lot! I said Monday, didn't I? It's late, but it's still Monday.**

**I'm just going to address a few important points before the story begins:**

**1) Egyptian and Persian gods are in no way involved in this. Not a crossover.**

**2) The statue Leo made in Troy is not forgotten, just wait a sec.**

**3) A lot of people have started saying that I added too many characters and changed the plot too much. a) What plot? Nobody knew which way Mark of Athena was going when I wrote this, it was the day after The Son of Neptune! We were still hyperventilating over the stupid glossary! So I _could _write in Arachne and Hercules now if someone wanted me to. Also people don't like my added characters. I added three: Quinn, Josie and Tommy. Tommy was my way of resolving the Piper/Jason/Reyna conflict and adding European demigods (which I've been thinking about for a while) and including Plato's the Symposium in this. Quinn's job will become apparent next chapter. Josie's will, like, right now.**

**4) I hope you guys enjoy!**

**So here's your chapter! and I hope you enjoy and don't hate me! **

* * *

><p>Title: The Newborn Giant<br>Rating: C  
>Type: Adventure, friendship, romance, humour if I'm really good, fantasy, angst<br>Characters: Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Quinn Hunter, Thomas Rosenberg, Josie Esposito, the Olympians, Gaia, the Giants  
>Synopsis: With a new enemy at hand, the half-bloods face a tight time limit to save the world. But with a prophecy and various battles separating them around the globe, will their individual strengths suffice?<p>

* * *

><p>I<p>

Piper

"Pants!" Piper said, surprised.

She wasn't wearing a stupid Greek dress anymore, and her hair wasn't done up in Elissa's beautiful braids. She was wearing a fresh pair of jeans and a clean Camp t-shirt, her hair beaded with gold beads. She wore Greek armour, save the helmet, and Katoptris was back at her waist. When she checked her pocket, the gorgeous barrettes Elissa had put in her hair that morning were there. It made Piper sad all of a sudden that she hadn't had time to say goodbye.

"Yeah, and this is a shirt," Frank said tugging at his purple top. "I'm going to go get my armour," he said going down. "Haze, I'll grab yours."

Nobody asked Josie how the heck she'd just shown them all that, and Piper was fine with that because she didn't want to know.

What she _did _want to know was how the heck were they supposed to fight one near invincible giant?

"Maybe if it has all the strengths it has all the flaws," Annabeth suggested, pacing around the ship. She and Quinn had been doing that for a while. They hadn't even stopped when the dress and Ithacan armour had disappeared. "Nico is holding grudges, Thalia's in overconfidence-"

"Let's call it that," Percy said.

"Percy!" Annabeth scolded.

"Hey, even _I _agree with that statement," Jason interrupted. "Don't you two start again."

"Sammy's dead?" Hazel asked. She looked in shock.

"Yeah, Haze." Leo said. "His soul was like… gobbled up or something? Destroyed?"

Hazel's face had fallen. Frank looked uncomfortable.

The conversation when not as to drive away from the one that might happen.

"Gaia said that Cathleen Amjad was taken care of," Quinn said weakly, looking seasick for a second.

"Who's that?" Frank asked.

"Cate," Quinn said. Everyone recognised the name better. "Does that mean she's..?"

"There's no way to know," Jason said immediately.

"He's right," Frank said. "Quinn, Gaia was probably just saying that. Let's focus on our quest, okay? Annabeth asked a good question, does the giant have all the captive's weaknesses?"

"I don't think so," Quinn said. There were a bunch of really smart arguments thrown around, which intimidated Piper into stayingout of the conversation.

Finally Annabeth dropped and sat against the railing.

"I can't believe she took Matthew's _blood." _She said.

"It was all about DNA," Quinn said.

"He's eight," Annabeth said.

Nobody responded to that.

"It's no use to panic," Jason said in his calm and stable voice. "It's frightening and unexpected but so was Troy. And we made it out alive, right? Some things we do because we can, and some things we do because we have to. And each for our own reason, we _have _to make Gaia pay. We can't do that if we're all freaking out. Leo's steering us in the right direction, Ella's given us our prophecy, we're ready."

"_The giant's birth to make the earth strong," _Frank said.

"Let's forget that one line," Jason said.

People scattered.

Piper went to the railing and looked down at the ocean. It would be distinctively easier to give up and dive into the ocean right now instead of facing everything waiting for them. Of course she wouldn't _jump_,that was insane! But she was insanely jealous of all the people who had that option. It was like she'd been sucked into this prophecy business in a conversation that went like;

Fates: Hey Piper, want to save the world?

Piper: No, not really.

Fates: That's a yes!

And when that happened she'd dragged Tommy along since they were tethered together by fate. If he got hurt, would it be because of her? If she weren't a prophecy child, would the European camp be safe and sound? He wouldn't be on this ship, anyways. The only reason for it was because Piper's existence has dragged him in as it had done in the past, and as his past-self had done to her past-self, and as it would in the future- as long as there was a future.

It made her head hurt and she still needed to grill Aphrodite for a very precise and clear explanation of this, but basically she'd feel forever responsible and guilty and crushed if he died and the worry was running deep in Piper.

A chain was tied around her neck from behind and a ring was resting on her collarbone. Arms slithered around her waist. She leaned back into Tommy and buried her head in the crook of his neck.

"Are you worried?" He asked her.

"Yeah," Piper said. "Mostly about you."

"Okay, I know last time we were separated on the quest I became a prisoner of war and nearly got executed, but I'll be okay this time, I promise. Worry about you."

"You're doing enough of that to cover my whole family three times over," she said. He kissed her on the cheek.

"I just found you. I don't want to lose you."

Piper leaned back.

"I think you should take the ring," she insisted.

"Bummer. You're taking it." Tommy said.

"Tom…" Piper sighed.

"Wherever I'm going to be, it's not going to be safer than where you are," Tommy said.

"That doesn't mean anything!"

"To me it does," he said. "You made me take it during Troy; I make you take it during the war."

"That's called 'cheating'." Piper complained.

"No, it's called 'karma'." Tommy said.

That's when Ella started hopping around the ship and muttering very quickly. Josie got up, held out her hands and a few seconds later a scroll dropped right into them. She handed it to Jason.

"Is that one of my magic scrolls?" Leo asked. "That's freaking copyright!" He put the ship on autopilot and everyone gathered.

Piper recognised a woman she'd never actually seen in the scroll. Aphrodite.

"Hello dears," she said. "Piper, my sweat. Thomas, darling."

She knew Tommy? Argh- Piper didn't even want to know.

"The gods are waiting for you on a charming little island East of Zakynthos," Aphrodite said. "We're out of Olympus, Athena has a plan, and we'll have to fight _soon." _

"Like, right now." Someone that was probably a war god of some kind interjected.

"Like Mars said, _right now," _Aphrodite said. "Gear up, prep yourselves, and I'll see you soon, sweethearts."

And the scroll faded.

"Let's land this thing," Leo said skipping over to the control station. "Pipes, find a map and locate Zakynthos. Is that contagious?"

The boat landed and glided over the water for about five minutes before something went wrong.

Piper noticed something was really wrong when she saw Percy, Jason and Hazel talking, and their breaths fogged up. She looked to Tommy and Frank talking strategy; same for them.

Everyone looked around and the temperature was dropping. The boat's movements got slower. The sea around them stopped churning.

Piper ran to the edge and saw that the water was slowly freezing over.

The ocean never froze over like that. _Especially _not in Greece.

It was one of those times where Leo let out a strong mortal cuss word but meant every profanity it evoked.

"Guys," Piper said. "Jason, Leo…"

"We know," they echoed. Jason drew his sword.

"Khione?" Annabeth asked.

"Sure looks like it…" Jason said shielding his eyes and looking up at the sky. The boat touched down on the water.

Heavy snowflakes fell from the sky, but instead of covering the Argo II and melting at its surface they piled into snowmen. Except these things weren't Frosty; they were more like snow hoplites; Greek warriors. Their lances and leaf-bladed swords were made out of ice. Leo's hands burst into flames and Piper drew Katoptris, the sound of metal slithering out of sheaths echoing all over the deck.

Frank let his first arrow fly and it pierced a snowman through the hypothetical heart. The snowman kept advancing. Frank shot three more arrows before turning into a snowy white tiger and pouncing.

Swords were swinging. Katoptris split through a snowman and the upper half fell to the floor. Piper jumped on it, her two feet together and smashed its face. Did the opening of Death's Doors affect snow? She didn't know, but no chances were being taken.

Piper was hit in the back by a chunk of snow and ice, and she assumed that Josie was using her explosive powers for this.

She was on her third, and they kept coming down.

"HIT THE DECK!" Leo yelled. Jason was the last one because he was duelling one snowman who received a powerful kick in the chest that sent him over deck.

The whole Argo II looked like the underside of a volcano; fire burning and curling and heating the whole face up. It wasn't too cold, it was too hot. Frank screamed, and Piper assumed that wherever the stick was, it was on deck, but not in the fire zone because he was still alive.

Puddles of water were splashed around the deck now.

"Frank- my gods- are you okay?" Piper asked putting a hand on his forehead. He had a fever.

"I'm fine," he insisted. Hazel looked sick.

"Guys!" Tommy shouted.

The ice all around them, in the sea, started cracking. They rushed to the railing and looked, Annabeth and Percy rushing to a ballista, Frank holding his bow, Josie had her hands raised, ditto Leo, Tommy had a spear pointed towards outwards, Jason had that glow in his eyes that meant he'd summon lightning…

Before anybody could do anything millions of shards of ice stuck together sculpting a terrifying sea monster that promptly slammed into the boat, sending everyone overboard.

Piper screamed and got a mouthful of the coolest water she'd ever touched For a second water she felt okay, then her whole skin stung and protested, like, 'why are you making us be here?'

_GET OUT OF THE WATER! _Someone screamed in her brain. Percy. _I CAN'T BREATHE! IT'S KHIONE'S DOMAIN NOT POSEIDON'S!_

She kicked up to the surface and grabbed Hazel. She'd have to thank her dad for making her take swimming lessons.

The Argo II was floating upside down, like a toy boat in a child's bathtub.

Piper dragged Hazel and Leo, who somehow had gone down with his ship, pulled them on. Tommy was tugging Jason and showing him how to kick. Josie had front-crawled over and she and Quinn, who looked zoned out, were pulled on by Leo and Piper. Ella had flown and had landed on it, muttering something so quickly Piper couldn't hear, but she sure was passionate about it. Tyson was fine, not even wet actually, and Frank had turned into a dolphin and although everyone was telling him to get out of the water like Percy said, he was the last one onboard.

"Wait a minute," Jason realised. "Where are..?"

Two heads burst out of the water about twenty feet away. Percy, dragging Annabeth. They pulled on to the closest thing they could, a plain sheath of ice detached from the rest by the pressure the Argo II had applied while falling.

Percy got Annabeth to climb on and then he followed. They got up but Annabeth almost fell. Percy grabbed her whole forearm, keeping her stable. Her heels weren't even on the ice and she was leaning back dangerously, but there was no way to get her straight.

The ice was cracking.

"Percy, let go!" She said.

"What?"

"Percy, the ice isn't solid or big enough for both of us," she said. "It's cracking, it'll break."

"I can swim," he said. "Stay here, I'll just-"

"This is Khione's domain, not Poseidon, not yours! You can't go in there." Annabeth said.

"Well then you're staying out of there too," Percy said.

"NO!" Annabeth yelled to be heard over the howling wind that was cutting straight through Piper's soaked clothes. "Let go! You heard the prophecy; _Together the three elders shall do no wrong._ The world needs you Percy."

"Why don't you need me?" Percy yelled, simply in anger.

"Because I'm not important!" Annabeth said.

"Yes you are! You're always important, you were always important, you will always be important!" Percy snapped.

"Priorities don't include me!" Annabeth said. The ice was cracking more. "Let go now!"

And in a heartbreaking moment, looking down at them, it all made sense in Piper's head.

Fatal flaws. Loyalty. Priorities. How Annabeth seemed to have been being mean to Percy on purpose…

She looked at Frank. His face had completely melted. He understood it too.

"Percy!" Frank called over, his hands cupping his mouth. "Listen to her!"

"WHAT?" Percy asked, outraged, like that idea had never crossed his mind.

"You have to, Percy." Frank called. "It's for the better!"

"Who cares about the better!"

"You do!" Frank reminded him. "Percy, don't make me go down there!"

Annabeth was so very close to the edge.

Piper's heart and mind and everything were torn.

Oh gods.

Her best friend had sacrificed her favourite thing in the world and was now asking to be let go into a tumbling sea of ice from which there was no saving or escaping.

The ice cracked and they were nearly both about to fall in. Two teenager's weight was too much for the little isle.

Annabeth shot Piper one desperate look and she knew she had to do it.

She cupped her hands around her mouth so he'd hear her over the wind.

"Percy," Piper called trying to layer on the charmspeak. "Listen to Annabeth. Let go."

The charmspeak didn't convince him. But he looked at both Annabeth and Frank and Piper like they were all insane.

"Percy, you're a prophecy child, we need you!" Piper called. "The world needs you! Your mother, your best friends, your brother, your stepfather, your people, your nation…"

Percy looked at Annabeth

"Priorities," she said. "Percy, don't let your flaw be the end of you. Let go."

And with a sound that sounded like speech mutated by sobs, he did.

Annabeth

There were five stages of drowning.

One: surprise.

Annabeth wasn't surprised. She'd known she'd die since that night on the beach of Troy. Being let go of and dropped into the icy ocean under the power of an enemy god hadn't really sounded like sure and certain death, but it had been there all along. The proof had been looking up at anybody who'd known about it. Surprise was inexcusable.

Two: involuntary breath holding. The body closed the epiglottis automatically, which blocked the airway and cut oxygen supply. That was good, because Annabeth wouldn't have done it herself.

Three: loss of conscience- during which the body shut itself down from lack of oxygen, and convulsions. Annabeth's whole body was jerking, her limbs pulling against their sockets and hurting. She just sank lower, and lower, and the pressure started becoming tight… and she lost conscience.

You'll have to look up the last two stages yourself.

* * *

><p><strong>Now you know why Annabeth was not the seventh half-blood, and now you know why Josie is.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Annons<strong>

Jake- Yeah, it's random, but I had no idea where RR was going with his series at the time, so my story created its new cardinal point and went that way.

Jefcfacfwrv- I consider myself quite intelligent, actually, as opposed to stupid. Why are you so rude?

Anonymous- Well, when I wrote this, nobody knew about Arachnid and Hercules. If you want me to write them in, I might if you asked. And for the purpose of my story I needed extra characters, which is why Tommy and Quinn and Josie came in. You'll see why, I pinky promise there's a reason. There are jobs that the seven won't be able to do that need doing. They are in no way stealing spotlight. Lou Ellen is a real character made up by Rick Riordan, by the way.

This is fanfiction, so of course it won't be the same as the book.

GottaLuvLeoV- :DDDDDDD

Lara D- No, no, no you are perfect.

bobthepegasus- Hey, good idea! Just kidding, no, they're still strong. And I don't think they do. I think the gods just act all-powerful adn let everything else fly.

Artemis' Hunter- Not complete

Guest- I'm happy to hear that!

Bigfan- :DDDDDDDD I don't know.

Guest- Oh, but it's there ;)

Kayce- thank you!

Guest- Why? For fun. (no, it's to add feels and tragedy)


	96. NG II Jason

**ohmygodthankyouforreadingpos tchapter1**

**I promise it gets better**

* * *

><p>II<p>

Jason

He nearly dove in to go get Percy himself, but Leo had taken a rope out of his tool belt. Percy grabbed onto it and everyone pulled to float he and the aisle back.

Percy flopped on the deck, propped up at his elbows, looking at the sea with a look of pure horror on his face.

"Oh my gods," Percy gasped. "Oh my gods…"

Jason grabbed his shoulders and dragged him further onto the hull. "Percy, don't…"

"She's going to…" He struggled, but Jason and Frank pinned him down. He didn't make a single sound.

"She drowned," he said. "I let go. Oh my gods…"

Jason took a deep breath. He'd just watched Annabeth Chase drown- the kind of death he was most afraid of. But he wasn't going to let that slow this crew down because Annabeth wouldn't want it to. Never had he felt more heartless for thinking of moving on.

"Percy, look at me," Jason said. "Stop it. Don't do this. Keep going. Fight on or else she died for nothing. Do you want that? Do you want her to be dead for no reason?"

"No," he said weakly, sounding distant.

"Good," Jason said.

"I don't want her to be dead," he said.

Piper struggled to breathe without crying behind him.

"That's not a choice you have, had or will have." Jason said. "We're going to have to get out of here. Can you help us?"

Percy looked down at the ship.

"Probably," Percy said.

Jason had to keep his cousin focused on something other than Annabeth. A small part of his mind would permanently be dedicated to her, but Jason had to try. "Good, can you do that?"

They managed to row and push the Argo II. Leo hacked through the hull and found an emergency engine button dedicated to this purpose. Why it was there, Jason had no idea. The Argo II had a button for everything.

They eventually sailed.

Nobody said a word.

Jason looked over at Quinn. She was curled up in Hazel's arms and Hazel didn't seem to be doing much better. Frank's face was calm, but on the inside he was probably freaking out. Josie's face was emotionless and she was picking at her nails. It was impossible to read her. Tyson looked close to tears. Ella was hopping around the place and muttering like crazy. Leo looked crushed but he was keeping himself busy by drying people out with his fire. Piper's eyes looked empty and shocked. Percy was just… Jason didn't want to talk about it.

"So we don't have maps," Leo said. "But I figure that one of us has the instinct to get us to small Greek islands."

"Straight," Percy said. "If we keep this speed we'll be there in ten."

"Let's speed it up," Frank suggested.

Percy didn't say anything and complied.

Once the ice was gone, Percy's water powers kicked in and worked.

Suddenly Hazel let out a shriek.

"I don't have it!" She said.

"What?" Frank asked her.

"The stick- the fire stick- your lifeline- oh my gods, it's not in my pocket!" She said. Her eyes were filling with tears of whatever- exhaustion, stress, just being overwhelmed…

"I'll go get it," Percy said.

"No," Frank said. "Nobody's getting in danger for me. Especially not you."

"I'm sorry," Hazel moaned. "Oh my gods, it's all my fault."

"No," Frank said. "It's not. I'm not dead, so obviously it's still floating around and being okay. It's fine, Hazel, it's fine. It's probably safer in the ocean than in battle."

Hazel didn't look so sure, but Frank eventually calmed her down.

It was about ten minutes of sailing only until an island came into sight. People were gathered on the shore, obviously confused since their ship was upside down. He could classify the different reactions. Venus, who apparently had a long history with Percy and Annabeth, would be crushed. Athena would be devastated, and she'd also wonder why and how the boat was upside down because it wasn't physically possible. Hephaestus would probably be wondering how that worked …

They hoped off when the mast started touching the bottom. Percy helped Jason swim. This was a problem he was going to have to work on once all this was over.

"Percy," Jason said. His cousin hadn't talked. "I know you're mad, but you've got to calm down around the gods."

"I'm calm."

"You're not calm, you're fuming and you're upset and you're broken inside."

"I'm calm."

"Percy, your girlfriend just died." Jason said.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Percy snapped at him. His voice was quiet, and it sounded a little broken when he said, "But yeah. She died."

His green eyes filled with tears. Jason could touch the ocean floor now so he pulled away from Percy and gave his cousin a quick hug.

"You're going to be okay," Jason said. "Just concentrate, for everybody's good. I'll never ask anything bigger from you."

Percy took a deep breath and then they wadded back to shore.

The gods were waiting there. Most of the Olympians and a goddess wearing a purple cloak glowing with gold runes and alchemy symbols. For a second Jason had a haunting flashback of Cate Amjad- was Quinn right? Was she dead?

"Demigods," Jupiter said upon seeing them.

"Gods," was Josie's reply in a mockingly solemn voice. Hazel and Quinn both shot her warning looks.

"Where is Annabeth?" Athena asked.

Nobody said anything. Percy actually walked away.

"I see." Athena said.

"Chase?" The Greek wine god, Mr D, asked, sounding chocked. "She's dead?"

"Let's just get this going," Piper said to change the subject. "We're running out of time. Athena has a plan? Knowing it would help."

Percy had looped back towards them, taking deep breaths.

Athena picked up a potato sack and tossed it towards Tommy who opened it. Inside were heavy gold bracelets with a single stone sunk into the top.

"There's one for each of you according to your birthstones," Athena said. "Put it on. They're enchanted by Hermes and they will allow you to travel from one place to the other in the homelands, or wherever a fight is going on. This war is international."

Jason had no idea what his birth stone was. Then he figured out that only about three people actually knew. Hazel got exasperated, grabbed the sack and handed them out.

"Yours is a bloodstone," Hazel told Jason, "And yours is a diamond," she told Percy. "Remember that."

"We've got you for gems," Jason said as Hazel put on her bracelet. A heavy black stone was centered in it.

There was one extra bracelet. Annabeth's.

Hazel put it back in the bag and handed it back to the wisdom goddess.

Quinn was staring down at her bracelet.

"Everybody here has either a city to hold, or a giant to destroy," Athena said. "The cities are all ancient Olympus locations. Bellona is holding Tehran, Hermes is taking care of Berlin, Nemesis is in London… You get the idea. The giants to hold don't necessarily correspond to what Gaia planned- for example Polybotes is destroyed, therefore Poseidon will just make sure that the giants don't cross oceans to get to the other continents, and if nobody else gets to him in time he and Perseus will handle Damysos."

"Swiftest of the giants," Poseidon told Percy.

Percy didn't look interested.

"You're fighting Enceladus?" Quinn asked. She wasn't stuttering. She was talking to gods without stuttering. That wasn't like her, and immediately Jason knew that something was wrong in her head. Something wasn't right, something about her was going to drastically change...

"Yes," her mother said.

"How long can you hold him?"

Athena mused for a second. "Between thirty minutes and an hour, realistically."

"Forty-five minutes?" Quinn asked. Jason was confused.

"Yes," Athena said.

Quinn's hand clamped over her bracelet, hiding the sapphire.

"You have two hours before the peak," she said. She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. "Take me to Gaia's prison."

Tommy reached to grab her arm but Quinn disappeared and his fingers closed on air.

"Quinn!" Hazel said.

"Where did she go?" Jason asked.

"She went to go save the hostages, didn't she?" Aphrodite asked. Part of her was obviously fangirling.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Mars asked Athena harshly.

"Has it crossed your mind that I did not _want _to stop her?"

"This is not time for wisdom-building 101," Mars said.

"No, it's time for action and victory," Athena said. "And I believe Quinn can give us that."

"Don't start fighting," Jupiter said. "Concentrate."

Piper mouthed at Jason: you do that too.

Athena waved her hand and a map of the world appeared in midair, like a topographic map with bumps except it looked like a projection. Small figures strolled across the land, and they were obviously giants.

"Ouranos, the sky, has chosen to stay neutral but he is providing us with an aerial map of the world," Athena said. "Access is granted by tapping on your stone. You can locate the gods, the seven prophecy children, large armies, and the giants with this."

"Even the new one?" Tommy asked.

The gods fell silent.

"Thomas, what new one?" The winged goddess Victoria, Tommy's mom, finally asked. You could tell she was Tommy's mother; they had the same dark hair and eyes and outdoorsy look, except Victoria had two wings of interlocked bronze feathers growing from her back.

"Josie do that thing you did again to show us," Leo said. "You know the creepy one?"

"I have those coded by letter," Josie said. "What creepy thing?"

Piper explained quickly and briefly what they had seen.

"So a passionate giant with young vitality, the power to raise an army of the dead, use lightning and use the gift of Periclymenus and Pan is out there?" Apollo asked.

"He's also got a lot of honour?" Piper said helpfully.

Athena checked her map.

"He's not on the map yet, but I assume Ouranos will have visuals when he appears. He's probably not completely at his peak yet, I assume a growth period will be necessary before he can fight."

"Quinn said 'two hours before the peak'." Hazel said.

"How would she know?"

"She hears stuff," Josie said, which wasn't helpful.

"She has her sources," Athena said. There was a sparkle to her eyes, like puzzle pieces had slid together.

"This new giant is obviously the most powerful," Jason said. "It would be good to wipe out the other giants before he rises, so in two hours' time."

"The Doors of Death need to be closed for defeat to be possible," Hecate said. "Hades is working on it, along with most Underworld gods, but Gaia is making everything they do counterproductive."

"Well great, now we know what to do," Leo said. "Kill Gaia."

"That is not an easy task, boy," Hephaestus said.

"Nor is living your whole life without your mom because Gaia had her killed and burned," Leo said. His hands burst into flames. "I've done that, now I'm doing this."

Ella chimed in a prophecy line.

"_Conquerors of flame and time shall fight the enemy under," _she said.

"Perfect," Leo said.

"There's no way you're fighting Gaia on your own, Valdez." Jason said.

"I'll go," Frank said.

"You will?"

"I will. I have a problem I need to solve with her." Frank said. His eyes flickered on Hazel for a second. Jason didn't think she had noticed.

"I'll go too," Hazel said.

"Not so fast," Dionysus said. "I'm afraid you're stuck with Perry and Jacob."

Jason frowned.

"He means us," Percy said. His voice was harsh and cold.

"_Together the three elders shall do no wrong," _Ella quoted.

And that's how it went down.

Jason, Percy and Hazel clumped together. Frank gave Hazel a hug and he slapped Percy and Jason on the back.

"You guys do good," he said. He whispered in Jason's ear. "Take care of both of them."

Leo was a bit more hyper, saying goodbye.

Piper kissed Tommy and went to go hang out with her mom.

"Giosetta," he called.

The sand at his feet blew up and the gods panicked and pointed weapons.

"Josie," she said. "Not what _she _named me; Josie. Of course you'd know that if you'd talked to me for five seconds."

Apollo didn't respond to the hostile tone. "You're coming with me okay? I am your father."

"Too bad her name isn't Luke," Leo muttered.

Josie's jaw dropped and she slapped a hand to her cheek.

"Bloody shocker," she said. "Yeah, I've kind of figured that out by now. I thought I should introduce myself as your daughter instead, because apparently you didn't know that."

"We'll talk later." He said.

"No, we won't as a matter of fact, Mr Almighty," Josie snapped.

Jason grabbed her arm and dragged her aside. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, her brown hair held back strictly and her dark eyes angry.

"Josie, look," he said quietly. "I know that he was never there. I know that you always needed him. I know you're mad. Believe me, I've felt it too."

"You?" Josie asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," he said. "Contrarily to popular belief, I am human and I do get angry and I do get upset and I do miss things and people."

Josie looked at him and blinked. "It's the first time you've told anybody, isn't it?"

"Yes," Jason said. No use lying to her.

"Okay," she said.

"You've just got to work with him for today. One battle, one giant, that's all I'm asking for. You're in the same boat as the rest of the seven, in more than one way."

"I've never been like anyone." Josie said after a while. The way she said it had a kind of sadness to it- the first emotion Jason had heard from her that wasn't snarky or sarcasm.

"Well now you are," Jason said. "You're one of us, like it or not."

Josie took a deep breath.

"You have no idea," she said. "But okay. Look, I have a friend in Spain. His name's Hugo Castillo Vega. He's easy to find, little hobo boy. My age, black hair, dark eyes, leather coat, unless it got stolen by now..."

"Why are you telling me this?" Jason asked.

Josie didn't answer. She just said; "Have a good one, Jason."

And she went to stand in front of Apollo giving him the dirtiest of looks- the kind of thing that your Centurions would starve you for at camp.

Jason called it progress and he went to join the others.

"What in the world did you ask her?" Tommy asked.

"The truth," Jason said.

Apollo handed her a spare bow and quiver and she adjusted the quiver's strap over her shoulder.

"This feels wrong."

"Well that's a first." The sun god said.

"Yes, so is a turkey talking." Josie said looking at Apollo significantly. He let it fly.

Tyson and Ella were explained that they'd have to go fight with the half-bloods in America, who were concentrating on repelling the armies heading towards five big cities. They'd be the messengers, explaining the plan.

Leo and Frank were going under and when they'd emerge, they'd go find their fathers.

Piper and Josie were off giant-hunting with their godly parents, for better or for worst.

Jason, Hazel and Percy were apparently an elite squad. They'd travel around to where the clusters of monsters on the maps looked the worst, and they'd call each other to and from the giants they were fighting. Jason wasn't sure either Hazel or Percy was ready for that- physically and mentally. He was panicking himself.

Tommy was apparently going to be the extra. Whenever a god desperately needed a half-blood, he'd get a call via bracelet and show up. Until then he was supposed to be a lookout, a coordinator for the maps since they couldn't just walk around with these maps on their wrists, or even let the giants know they had them.

"It's one of your strengths," Victoria told your son. "Strategy, picking priorities, making matches between heroes and monsters to win fights."

"It was my job at camp." Tommy said.

Jason gathered them all up, away from the gods.

"Whatever happens, regardless of who comes out, and no matter how the world ends up, we're all a team." Jason said. "And whatever happens, it was an honour to fight, live with and know you guys."

A few people nodded, though battle jitters seemed to be the commanding force.

"I know that… I know that Annabeth's death is hard on all of us right now," Jason said. He had this disturbing memory of Annabeth sinking underneath the grey roaring waves. He shook it away. "But she'd want us to fight, because that's what she'd do, and that's what she accompanied us here for. If we let her death stop her, we won't hear the end of it in Hades."

"Amen," Frank said, squeezing Percy's shoulder.

"I know all the gods are watching," Piper said. "But it feels like a really good time for a group hug."

"YOLO!" Josie said. And so they did, right there, right in front of the gods, on that beach, with the world scheduled to end in two hours and a fresh lost tearing them inside.


	97. III Percy, Piper, Frank

**I just realised that I got no haters because the haters all left during book 1 when I said that Annabeth wasn't going on the Argo II.. Le ha ha!**

**To the rest of you, thank you for a) reading b) reviewing c) being mature and d) existing in general.**

**Other detail: I know that Peridot is for August and emerald is May and so forth. But I found this thing called mythical birthstones, so you know, I kind-of just had to go with that. But thank you for making me point that out everyone, I forgot! Also please don't ask me how many chapters I have left because it's mucho. I'd say ten for the downright story, give (a lot) or take, and then an epilogue. **

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine**

* * *

><p>III<p>

Percy

The only thing that Percy could remember right now was when he'd held up the sky.

It was the heaviest thing he'd ever endured, and he had the sensation of being crushed under a thousand trucks. He thought he was going to faint from the pain, but took a deep breath and told himself _I can do that, _and so he had.

Now he thought Atlas had been doing him a favour. Because the sky was not the heaviest thing he'd ever endured.

He took deep breaths but nothing could convince him that he could do it.

He, Jason and Hazel just got pulled along to this new thing he had to do to save the world, because of course it was always him who had to do it but without Annabeth he didn't know if he could.

Great. Would he have to watch Hazel, a little sister he'd never had, die? Or Jason, who was like a brother at this point? Would they die? Would he let go again?

"What do you think?" Hazel asked. Jason was kneeling over a paw print, his hand hovering above it, and he looked back at Percy.

"How fresh?" Percy asked.

"A few minutes," Jason said. "Under ten, for sure."

"I say we follow it," Percy said. "This is obviously the monster Tommy wants us to fight. Better get it from behind before it gets hold of us."

The downside to their elite team; they'd just combined the three strongest demigod scents in the world.

"What do you think it could be?" Hazel asked.

"These tracks aren't human, hoof or snake." Jason said. "But definitely reptilian."

"Dragon?" Percy suggested.

"I was thinking more of drakon." Jason replied.

"How much are you giving me if it's a dragon?" Percy said.

"Five," Jason replied right away.

"Drachmas or Denarii?" He didn't want to be making these jokes. He didn't want to look okay. He didn't want to fool around with his cousins. He wanted to sit and a corner and not move again. But that wasn't a choice right now. Everyone else was moving and fighting; so would Percy.

It felt like an insult to her.

But maybe it'd be an insult to her if he didn't fight and let Gaia and Khione get away with her death.

"I'm poor Jackson; take what you can get. _If_ we get out of here, of course." Jason said.

"Does anyone know where we are?" Percy asked, not recognising the landscape. It looked very green, with small trees dotting the landscape, but they were obviously in the middle of nowhere.

Hazel knelt and put her hand on the ground, eyes closed.

"India," she said.

"What?"

"We're in India." She said. "Trust me, the metals and gems here are Indian. Do I get five if I'm right?"

"You get twenty," Jason said as they kept walking.

"Nice to know which cousin's the favourite," Percy commented.

"No, that's Tyson," Jason said. "He's the only decent one I have."

"I object," Hazel said.

They quieted down as they stalked, which gave Percy too much time to think.

They heard the sound of something huge snorting, and a short column of steam popped up in the air. They looked at each other and crouched.

They got to the top of the hill they were climbing and saw it, just standing in a huge field; the dragon.

It had a huge tail of interlocking blood red scales. Its underside was gold and lush, and its head was shaped like a diamond. It had eyes like a snake and round nostrils that ejected smoke every now and then.

They all looked at each other.

"It's a dragon," Percy pointed out.

"Definitely," Jason said. "Okay, I'll give you the money as long as we all live."

"What if Hazel dies? She's not influential in our bet."

"Hey!" Hazel protested.

"Hey guys, a plan?" Jason said calling them back to reality.

"You from above, I distract, Hazel from the side." Percy said.

"Done," Jason said.

Hazel crept to the right, Percy to the right. The advantage that their armour was floating in the ocean was that the sun didn't reflect it.

_The disadvantage is that Annabeth is dead, and I rather have a neon sign above me than that. _

So many unfinished businesses had gone down with her. He knew, he knew. He was being the boyfriend that just couldn't get over it, but for the love of the gods, they'd been to hell and back and stopped at Paris. She'd broken up with him, they'd had their emotional quota of fights, but it didn't feel over. It hadn't until she'd drowned.

Besides; Percy's emotional quota-meter had exploded days ago.

Jason let out a whistle like a birdcall and both Hazel and Percy charged. Hazel slid over the sand as if she were running down a hallway wearing socks, her sword raised. The wind picked up and blew everyone's hair around. Percy wanted water to show off too.

The dragon looked up just in time to whip its tail around. Percy nearly got whipped and thrown back, but he jumped and hit the ground running. He swept at the dragon's side but the dragon scurried back. He blew a column of fire in the air. Damn, Percy should've made a bet about the fire breathing capacities when he was gambling.

Jason dropped down from the sky and landed on the diamond shaped head. The dragon roared and Jason nearly fell. Hazel swept at the dragon, but she missed because she was too rushed to sweep before the tail knocked her away. The dragon blew fire again, and Jason had to retreat to avoid dying very painfully.

Percy stabbed the dragon in the thigh part of its leg and he screamed and shot out a column of fire. Hazel got a blow in too, but they had to rush backwards to avoid being set fire to as a ring of fire caught on the ground. What it had as far as fuel went Percy didn't know, but he didn't know lots of things so-

_No brain. Don't go there. Not right now. _

Jason dove again since he was the only one who could get access. Then the dragon did the weirdest thing; it stood up on its tail to reach Jason and snapped its jaws. Jason being a good flyer managed to swerve but it was _just _about to get him.

Percy and Hazel meanwhile tried to hack at the tail figuring that a fall from that high wouldn't do any good. Hazel's _spatha _bounced off.

"The muscles are too tight and strong," she said. The dragon looked down like 'what are these people doing?' decided that whatever it was it wasn't good, and blew fire. Percy grabbed Hazel and half-dragged, half-pushed her away.

He would not lose her and Frank would not lose her and Quinn would not lose her and Nico would not lose her and nobody would ever lose the two people he was fighting with.

"Okay, above won't work and sides are failing," Percy said. "Where's Jason?"

"Still up there," Hazel said. "He's going to get himself killed."

"In his defence, it's not like we have a better plan," Percy said.

Hazel's eyes lit up suddenly.

"Not over, or to the sides… but under…"

"Hazel that's-" he was going to say 'very draining of your energy'. But how did that work? How did you say that to someone during a battle for their lives and the fate of the world? Save your energy for when this thing stabs us and we die. Save your energy for when your enemies in particular rises and destroys everyone starting by you? She was Hazel. She was not some disease, or a relic to be saved for later. She was Hazel, and she was capable, and she was strong and fierce. "A good idea," Percy said.

She smiled, clapped her hands together and disappeared into the earth, as if absorbed.

The dragon turned back towards Percy who backed up, sword raised, ready to meet a strike. Which he did.

Jason dropped out of nowhere, which didn't surprise Percy because dropping out of nowhere was exactly how he'd _met _Jason.

He landed on the diamond shaped head and impaled it with his sword. The dragon opened its mouth and Percy had to admire the pierce that went through its mouth. Wow. Blood dripped onto the ground, colouring the grass red.

That's when a boulder shot out of the ground right under the tail, making the dragon fall through the air, pushing Jason off, but he caught himself. The dragon didn't and it just flew, so Percy ran to stab it in the underbelly. It roared and shot a column of fire that Jason narrowly dodged.

Hazel popped out of the ground like a wack-a-mole dummy and stabbed it and Jason dropped from the sky and tore its underbelly as gravity overtook him and BAM. Golden dust.

They all panted, starring at the dust, willing it to stay dead.

Piper

"You knew about Percy and Annabeth, didn't you?" Aphrodite asked once they materialised wherever they were meant to be. Great green scenery with trees and sunflower fields, mountains curving up and down around them, as if they were in a bowl surrounded Piper and her mom.

"Me?" Piper asked. "I- I… I just realised… when Annabeth told Percy to let go. It all clicked. She never told me."

Aphrodite sighed. "I _did _tell him that it'd been a while since we'd had a good tragedy."

"A tragedy?" Piper snapped. "Percy and Annabeth are not –were not- some game or an interesting reality show for all of you to watch and admire and squabble about! They were human, and they were perfect and they were good. It's not a tragedy; it's a _disaster _that she died_." _

"I know," Aphrodite said soothingly.

"Good!" Piper snapped. "Because we need Annabeth!"

She walked away angrily, counted to twenty in her head and looped back. Aphrodite was waiting patiently.

"I'm sorry," Piper said. Her voice cracked a little. She hadn't wanted to spill in front of Tommy; she didn't want to worry him. She'd decided that it was probably his fatal flaw; he always worried too much about everyone, he cared too much. Particularly about her on the ship. "She was my friend."

"She was your best friend," Aphrodite corrected.

"She was," Piper said. "And Percy's my friend and I just… It must've killed her inside. Did anybody know, or did she keep that bottled up?"

"Quinn knew."

"Of course," Piper sighed. "Gods- I'm so horrible, I should've realised what was going on…"

"Annabeth was smart," Aphrodite said. "Even Quinn didn't guess. Nobody did. You were busy; you had your own path."

"Don't all our paths tangle?"

"Yes," Aphrodite said. "But not necessarily at the same places. I'm proud of you, Piper."

_I'm not, _Piper said. Not for a lot of things. She didn't say anything. Right now she was just scared and she felt small and powerless face to the wrath with which the world gave back what it'd given to you. She was scared of losing Jason, Leo, Tommy, Quinn, Percy, Hazel, Ella, Tyson, Lacy, Mitchell, Dad…

"What if I die here?" Piper asked.

"Then you die, sweet." Aphrodite said. "It's not always more complicated than that."

"No, I mean, to Dad? What happens to him?" Piper asked. "What will he know? Will he know? Will he know anything?"

"I don't know," Aphrodite said softly. "That's part of fate, my sweet. Even for gods."

"Well then I can't die," Piper said. "I need him to know I did the right thing. I need him to know that- that he did raise me right and that he did great."

Aphrodite pulled her closer and kissed her head. "He knows, Piper."

"Now c'mon, we have a giant to find or else Paris falls- we're in France by the way, it's lovely. Enjoy it now in case it burns up later. Just fight like a girl and everything will go fine."

Piper drew Katoptris. "Let's go."

Frank

"Any particular plan to get to Gaia's layer?" Frank asked.

"What Quinn did," Leo said. "She's smart, I bet it worked."

"You two are insane," Tommy said. Along with their godly parents, he was the only demigod left on the island. "But best of luck."

"Ditto, Tom," Frank said.

"Yeah, ditto." Leo said. "Keep an eye on the others, kay?"

"Don't trust them just because they're usually capable and responsible."

"Especially the three Elder god punks," Leo said.

"I'm on it," Tommy nodded. Mars walked up and clapped Frank in the back.

"Good luck, Frank," he said. "Don't worry if you can't completely kill her. Because that'll never truly happen."

"So..? What are we supposed to do then?"

"Put her back to sleep before she wakes up," Hephaestus said. "That's as close as anybody's ever gotten. Athena says that's as close as we'll ever get, and I reckon she's right."

"Okay, I figured out how to get there," Leo told Frank. "You figure the sleeping part out."

Frank gulped.

"What if she loses consciousness?" Frank asked. "Knock her out or something? Physical trauma will do it, right?"

"Probably," Mars said.

"It'd do me in." Leo said.

"Well so does Piper when she slaps you." Frank said.

"Piper slaps _hard," _Tommy said.

"Did you guys have a fight I wasn't there to colour commentate?" Leo asked him, hands on his hips, looking disappointed.

"Leo, focus," Frank said. "Physical trauma to the earth. Got it. Ideas?"

"Increase global warming?" Leo suggested.

"No, that's bad long-term," Frank said.

"I think it's fair," Tommy said. "Demigods can save the world, and then scientists can figure how to save it afterwards."

"No," Frank said. "We cannot just increase global warming."

"I can," Leo said. "Global warming increased when I walked in."

Frank ignored Leo and thought long and hard. He needed Annabeth, gods dang it. They all needed her.

"Use the tools you have," Hephaestus said gruffly. He was so different and alike Leo, Frank's mind was blown. "Don't make some up, there's no time."

"Right, we get two hours." Leo said. "Before that Asykas fellow is reborn."

"We're going to go hold off Mimon and Mimas," Mars said. "Our giants. Meet us at the battlefields as soon as you can. We'll do our best on our owns and with help, but get back soon. Our alternative is this guy, but Tommy here is only one guy who's got his own job."

"The legion in America seems to be moving," he said. He was sitting on a rock, looking at a map floating above his knees, pointing to gold wedges in the US. "The same applies to the Greek camps. They're settling around three cities."

"Which three are they leaving undefended?" Mars asked. "There are six targets for Gaia in the US."

Tommy checked again. "My geography isn't perfect, but I'd say that Detroit, Philadelphia and Chicago have loads of monsters and no demigods."

"That's okay, I don't like Chicago." Mars announced.

"Detroit can burn," Leo said. "They can evacuate fast, right?"

"They're protecting the doors of death," Frank realised. "That's in LA, right? And they're protecting New York and Washington DC; Olympus and the capital."

"Smart," Mars grunted.

"I'd say Reyna's free if the legion is marching alongside Greeks," Frank said. "Which is good- tell Jason if you see him, it'll make him feel a lot better."

"You know what would make Jason feel even better thank knowing his snogging buddy is out of jail?" Leo said. "Gaia dead."

He put his hand over his bracelet and Frank pulled his quiver strap higher on his shoulder and did the same.

"On three," Frank said. "One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Take us to Gaia," Leo said.

And there they were.

* * *

><p><strong>Les Annons!<strong>

**To Jake and Jake and Jake and whoever keeps posting under the name- **Technically it's not stealing because their name could be Jake too, so you can't make them stop. Just identify yourself as someone different and it's all good.

trukfit- we shall see. But I already pulled that trick last time I wrote one of these. Nutshell: Leo's girlfriend Hazel Ducharme (ironic now) died right in front of him and so Leo went nuts and killed Gaia.

hellothere- Yeah, but my story went ndgoweugrnwoneowj compared to the usual MoA stories. And I had to stop, I'm not a 24/7 writing engine.

Jake- tough luck :P Sorry, but Josie's there to stay.

youdontneedtome- I'm not going to rush it because then it'll just be bad for everyone.

annabeth- Annabeth would not spell a proper noun without a capital letter and never would she write 'you' like 'u'. GAEA STOP IMPERSONATING!

Lover of this fa- Thank you!

Guest- Umm, I'm still working on it :P

Guest- DONE

Guest- :D That review was very encouraging, thank you so much!

Kayce- :DDD Practise makes perfect! (that makes me sound like a psychopath)

bee- I wish I could give you an answer, but I can't.

bobthepegasus- Ha! I swear it's a real place. What are the differences between a dragon and a drakon, by the way. I knew but I forgot. Please help?

Jake- Not if Khione is going to freeze the water his lungs process for oxygen, he won't (I imagine Percy's lungs being like internal gills. I'm not a scientist)

Charline- After all is said and done if Quinn and Piper (who actually know) and Percy all live.

Mia- I don't know...


	98. IV Hazel, Quinn, Frank

**Hola dudes! Replies will be quick to the anons because I have to go pack for a will-be-awesome camp tonight, but I need to share the fact that Rick confirmed on Twitter that Reyna was born in Puerto Rico. **

**Disclaimer: me no own**

**Dedication: Dudes who helped jog my memory on drakons and dragons. Thanks a ton!**

* * *

><p>IV<p>

Hazel

She was exhausted by their first fight like some kind of rookie, but it took about three seconds for Tommy to relocate them. They were standing in a paddy field; the ground looked like green staircases with rice growing.

"Where are we?" Percy asked.

"The Asian country Minerva mentioned…" Jason said. "What was it?"

"I wasn't listening," Percy mumbled. Of course; because to listen Percy needed eye contact with whoever was talking, and to achieve eye contact he'd have to look at the grey eyes Athena had given her daughters.

"Japan?" Jason asked.

"Was it Vietnam?"

"Korea?"

Hazel opened up her map.

"China," she said. "Outside of Beijing. Why are men always so scared to ask for directions? Maps are your friends. Anyways, Hermes is supposed to be guarding the city."

"Not well if we're here," Percy muttered under his breath.

"Percy you can't just tell a god they're not guarding one of the world's twenty largest cities." Jason said.

"Guys, shut up," Hazel said. She felt exhausted and drowsy, like she'd just done a morning of legion exercises after skipping breakfast. "China's a place with loads of mythical animals. Which one does Tommy want us to fight?"

"I suppose it's too much to just ask for it to come to us?" Percy said.

"Naturally," Jason replied. "Let's go. Nobody's hurt from the last fight?" Jason checked. "Good."

They walked around the rice field, hoping not to have some Chinese farmer yell at them in Mandarin or Cantonese to get out of his fields. Because a) they had no choice, and b) they could not speak Mandarin or Cantonese and c) the monster would use _that _moment to pop up and eat them (unless said monster was already there in the form of the farmer). Hazel thought that she was getting good at the 'what's the worst case scenario?' game.

Of course she wasn't ready for the unicorn stampede, though.

Quinn

It wasn't in her nature to be rash and hasty and irrational.

And she hadn't been either of those things recently.

Well, maybe a little hasty. But definitely not rash, and not irrational. She'd been thinking those things ever since the boat had taken off from Troy.

She'd thought about the Oneiroi, her voices. They were _Underworld _spirits, which meant that right now they were directly linked at Gaia. But why would Gaia have released them, sent them out to Quinn? They were covering something, and they were bashing and torturing and trying to break her because if she ever found out what it was…

Until the moment when Gaia had attacked her and she'd hallucinated the curse that she'd pushed Jedediah away with, she was nothing remarkable. A shy daughter of Minerva who was very, very far from Camp; not a spectacular demigod like Jason or Percy, or a noted ally of Olympus like Annabeth, the holder of a rare power like Leo and Piper, or the descendant of half a dozen gods like Frank. Gaia had built herself an enemy this time.

Her mind side tracked. Annabeth… Oh gods, her chest ached and tightened and Quinn felt like crying. But she wouldn't. Annabeth had always let Quinn cry when she needed it, now Quinn was going to hold in her tears because Annabeth needed her to. Her sister's death could not possibly be in vain.

Anyways; after she'd figured that part out, she'd looked for patterns the Oneiroi might follow. Only one thing stood out; the closer Quinn was to Greece and the more she knew about the Oneiroi and who they were and where they were from, the more they hurt.

She was ignoring half a dozen death threats right then.

The answer had aligned in her head in one amazing flash as they were heading to Greece after Annabeth died, while Quinn's voices were absolutely killing her inside.

The voices could lead her straight to Gaia.

She could track down the master by following the voices. The bullying? It was to bring her down, because it was always about bringing her down all of it, from anyone in her life. It was to throw her off her feet and cause her never to get up and look for the origin. The curse was to make her mistrust people. Because if Quinn didn't believe in herself, she wouldn't have figured it out, Gaia would stay safe in the shadows and the hostages would be lost.

Jupiter had told her that she'd have to find her spot, unlike the seven who were given chores and tasks in the prophecy. That's what she'd done. She hadn't wanted to explain and she hadn't thought that anybody would understand what she meant, and so she'd left quickly- thought Minerva obviously knew herself.

Quinn was going to find the hostages, all of them, and set them free. Thalia and the hunters would give the Legion and phalanxes a great option. Mitchell and Jedediah were both demigods. Grover had nature at his command and Nico could be precious help closing the doors of death. Matthew and Grandmother Zhang might not hold on for much younger, one was too young and one was too old to be captured.

Gaia had taken them to give a blow to the seven and birth a giant; imagine all the other things they could do. They were all part of it. Not a big part. But Quinn didn't have a big part in the world either, so it worked.

She was in a long hallway that looked like a mine. Torches were on the walls and lone light bulbs dangled from the ceiling, giving the hallway a scary and abandoned feel to it.

She pressed the gem on her watch and ignored a voice telling her that the gem was the colour of… never mind.

The map lit up her face and the corners of the hallway light couldn't reach. Everyone was still on Zakynthos. They must be confused…

_They must hate you, _the voices said.

"It doesn't matter," Quinn said out loud.

_Everything matters. But you. _

Quinn swallowed hard.

She tapped her stone again, walked to the right and the voices got more distant. So she walked to the left. Forks in the hallway were backtracked, turns were retaken… She just followed the voices, her knees feeling weak and her head getting dizzy. She felt dehydrated; horribly dehydrated. She swallowed and kept going.

Thinking of Annabeth helped her put one foot in front of the other.

But it also wanted to make Quinn stop, shut down and crumple to the floor, because everybody had a last straw.

_And yours is about to round the corner, _the voices told her.

Quinn ran that way.

Frank

Leo was skipping down an earth-carved hallway.

"We're in Gaia's lair," Frank said, "On our way to defeat a primordial goddess who is boiling with rage. We've been wandering around here totally lost for about fifteen minutes. And you're _skipping." _

Leo threw his arms up in the air. "If I'm gonna die today Zhang, I'm gonna die skipping."

Ah, Leo. Who else would Frank spend the apocalypse with?

He was starting to get edgy. They only had two hours until the newborn giant Asykas rose and basically sealed their fate and put it in the 'doomed' pile. So far; they had accomplished nothing but walking around. And not even heroically because Leo was skipping.

Plus everything looked the same in this place, so for all Frank knew they were going around in circles.

He froze mid step.

"Leo," Frank said. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"What do you mean 'hear what'? It's loud and clear!"

"Either that or you're insane," Leo said. "What's wrong?"

Frank frowned. "It's… It's like an elephant drowning…"

Leo showed some concern. Frank shook his head, walked by Leo and followed the sound until they approached a crack in a wall.

He peered in, and wanted to run back out because it was never a good sign when the first thing you saw in a place was a giant being given birth to.

The thing was growing out of the same pool as they'd seen in Josie's [vision, prophecy, Facetime, whatever the right word was]. The room was the same, but the giant was taller. His shoulders were out of the pool, and he was completely covered in this white stuff that may or may not be a ton of vanilla yogurt, so Frank couldn't see a face but only lumps.

"Styx just got serious," Leo said next to him.

There was a cold laugh, one that sent chills down Frank's spine. The temperature dropped and Leo let out a string of impressively hard core swearing.

They got back to back, Frank facing the pool.

"Khione, get your butt in here and show your face," Leo said. "You have recently reached a whole new level of not cool and I'm about to make you very, very hot."

This was one of Leo's better threats.

"Oh Leo," a voice said.

A girl dressed in white from head to toe materialised. She had a mane of black hair and unnaturally pale skin, like she was a sick albino person. She wore a shawl made of grass and a belt holding daggers made of ice.

"You're so silly, thinking that I would repeat my mistakes twice." She swung her hand up and Leo and Frank were pulled apart by a chilling gust of wind. Frank nearly fell into Asykas' pool. _Ewe. _He did not need to find out what the white stuff was. The only reason he didn't was some force-field like force, pushing him away. Gaia didn't wantthem laying a finger on Asykas until he was ready, after all.

"Please, you made no mistakes. You just couldn't handle my sass Khione. It's okay, you can admit it. Really, we won't tell."

"I'll certainly make sure of it," Khione said. Snow started falling even if there was no sky. Winds picked up and Frank wanted a hoody or a jersey or _something._ It was the kind of bone-deep permanent chill as a snow day, when a storm hit and everyone got to stay home because the buses were cancelled and it was city-wide glee. He didn't get them often, because British-Columbia had milder weather than, say, Ontario or Quebec, so snow storms didn't hit at much.

"To storm or to fire..." Frank whispered under his breath. The light bulb in his head went up. "Oh snap."

Quinn

She had to stop in her tracks and grab onto the wall to slow her momentum and keep herself from running into the other person dashing through the hallway. That person kept running but she recognised him from a picture she'd once seen, and because of his size.

"Matthew," she called. "Matthew, stop!"

He recognised his name and turned around. The little boy must be eight with a flop of blond hair and pale blue eyes, and he looked terrified. There was a cut on his cheek going from his ear to his chin and he looked like he was about to cry, but he was keeping it together.

The voices told Quinn all about how he'd gotten the cut.

"Who are you?" He asked. "Monster?"

"No," Quinn said.

_Yes, _the voices promised.

"My name is Quinn. I'm Annabeth's sister." She said. That scored some brownie points with Matthew, who apparently had decided that Annabeth's other family side was reliable.

_You couldn't be more wrong, little boy. Little boy with blood so fresh, little boy with a life so short…_

"So you're, like, my sister?" He asked.

_I hope not for your sake, kid. Then again I'd also hoped you'd stay in the cage because we've got something special planned out for someone just about your size since the other wouldn't fit in the- _

"A bit," Quinn said squinting to keep the image into focus. Her head felt like exploding. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

He shook his head and pointed at his cut.

"How about I make you a deal," Quinn said kneeling in front of him.

_I die, the world can have a huge party, and there can be Cheetos there for you. _

"If you stay very close to me and let me help you, I can bring you out of here and bring you back to your Dad and Mom, okay?" Quinn said. "And then everything's going to be okay, and you're going to see your brother and eat pizza and Cheetos. You like Cheetos don't you?"

Matthew nodded eyes bright.

A sharp stab of pain his Quinn in the back of the head, traveling down her spinal cord. She'd used something the voices had told her against them and that was totally illegal. Her mind was playing tricks on her, sending her illusions of pain to join the voices.

_You're an all-around schizophrenic._

"But before any of that," Quinn said wincing, "We're going to have to go find the others, okay?"

"Like Thalia and Mrs. Zhang and Grover and-"

"Yes, all of them. Did they get out too?"

Matthew shook his head. "I'm just small. Thalia said I should run out. She said that Gaia would get rid of us anyways. I think she just wanted me to get home before they did."

Quinn's stomach fell. This is what he thought?

"It's good that you listened to Thalia," she said. She owed him the truth. Everyone was always owed the truth. "But it's a lot more serious than that, okay? Do you remember which way you ran?"

He shook his head.

"Let's start that way, okay? Come on," she said holding out her hand. Matthew took it and it felt like needles pushing into Quinn's palm, more ghost pains, but she went with it.

How did one find what they were looking for in a labyrinthine prison?

Easy; you followed the sound of people telling you that you couldn't do it.

Gaia had spent way too much energy on Quinn for the voices to do nothing. The stronger they got the best she was doing. If they died out, she and Matthew backed up and tried another hallway.

Quinn checked her bracelet and opened up the map. There was a countdown in the upper right corner, telling them how long they'd survived and how long they had before Gaia came back. Quinn had been wandering around for twenty-five minutes, nearly all the time given to her by her mother.

She was starting to have to figure it out in her head. What if she couldn't get them all? Did she leave with her bracelet, deposit Matthew in San Francisco, and join her mother or keep looking? She didn't even know where the Chases lived exactly.

Her plan rested to; I'll deposit Matthew with my dad because I know where he is, and I know he'll take care of him. No, in New Rome, that way if she died in battle they'd find Matthew and return him to his father. Then I'll keep looking because if Minerva really needs help, she can call on Tommy.

_Brilliant plan, genius. _A voice said mockingly.

"Thank you," Quinn said out loud because she had to. She winced, shutting her eyes hard, at the punishment pain that followed.

Matthew looked worried and Quinn gave him a smile.

"Almost there," Quinn said, trying to be encouraging even if she felt safe. She'd spent a whole lot of her life being alone, in schoolyards, in her cohort, against the voices… but when it came to fighting usually she was surrounded by twenty other fully armoured legionnaires, most of them stronger and better than she was. Now she was alone, she had Matthew to defend, and depending on the state of the other hostages, she might have more.

The pounding inside her head was horrid.

"Are you okay?" Matthew asked.

"I'm fine," she said.

_You're not. You're idiotic, you're useless, you're uneducated…_

"I'm fine," Quinn growled. "Not you Matthew, I'm sorry, I'm not talking to you."

"To who?" Matthew asked.

_Yeah, to who? Now he thinks you're insane and he's even more scared then before- way the go. _

"Someone only I can hear," Quinn said. "Don't worry, okay? It's normal, and it's helping me find our way. It's my superpower." She tried for a smile, but the lie sent pain down each of her four limbs.

"It's like a map that talks." Matthew said.

"Exactly. I am talking to my talking map." Quinn said.

_What if he finds out the truth? You're demented. And his sister is dead. Will he trust you then? We wouldn't blame him. We don't know why he trusts you now. _

Quinn kept her head up. She was tired of keeping her head up. Her neck was cramping. Her head had never felt heavier and her heart had never been heavier and more tired. Maybe it was because she was under a lot of pressure. Maybe it was because she was getting closer and closer to Jedediah. Maybe it was because she was in pain. Maybe it was because Matthew was walking closer to her than before.

Maybe it was because she'd been bullied her whole life and she was tired. Mortals, demigods, gods, spirits- they'd all done it. They'd all gone after her. It was like Quinn had nothing more to her than a red and white target and honestly she was sick of it. People didn't realise that she had twenty million other obstacles in the world, maybe they did, but the numbers were starting to look enormous, the pressure was ridiculous. These things piled up. Pokes at the circles under her eyes, shoves in a school hallway, threats to her Grandmère, cuts in line during training…

Quinn took a deep breath. She could not break down now.

_You will. _

The way vaccines work was that a small part of a virus was introduced into your body so that your immune system learned how to fight it off before the real disease hit. So why did these things still hurt her? Why was she not immune? Why was there no vaccine for the heart?

She stopped walking and pressed Matthew against the walls, a finger in front of her mouth. The voices were silent. What was going on? What was this? Quinn's heart was beating at an impossible speed that could not be healthy.

"What's going on?" Matthew asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I'll go check, but you have to wait right here, okay? And…" She took off her bracelet and put it on Matthew's wrist. It was a tracking device. In case she didn't come back for him. "You can't move unless someone that you don't know comes to get you, okay? Even if they look friendly, even dogs or snakes or spiders- _anything."_

"Things aren't what they look like." Matthew nodded solemnly.

"Exactly. So if something's not right, you run, and you never stop running because that's how heroes do it."

"Like Hercules." Matthew nodded.

Quinn was conflicted with inner debates on the pros and cons and flaws of Hercules and the degree of glorification he'd gone through for a second but she agreed with "Yes like Hercules."

She turned the corner.

The cage was basically unguarded. Bars sprouted from the earth and melted back into the ceiling, circling four people from 360 degrees.

Nico was the first one to see her. He tilted his head.

"You," he said. "You're Cate's friend."

_Cate is dead, _the voices reminded her. _You were a rubbish friend to her your whole life and you weren't even there in the end. _

"Q-Quinn," she said. Other hostages turned to look at her. Thalia Grace, Grandmother Zhang, Grover the satyr, a boy that must be Mitchell… She walked forwards, her legs running and feeling wobbly.

Out of nowhere, something bumped into her and Quinn fell back, rolling, her glasses falling off the tip of her nose, and the voices exploding in her head once again. She drew in a sharp intake of breath to avoid screaming, and scrambled for her glasses. She slipped them back over her nose and saw a cross looking girl looking down at her.

The African-American girl was about Annabeth and Piper's age, and she was wearing a green track suit, purple Nikes, and her silky hair was put up in a high ponytail. Gold chains hung around her neck, gold loops dangled from her ears, and gold rings weighed her fingers down- like Venus Williams. Her ears stuck out from her head and she was extremely pretty. Her arms were crossed over her chest.

_We're baaaack, _the voices said.

"Who are you?" She asked. "Gaia didn't tell me about another hostage."

"I- I'm a surprise," Quinn said.

_Well that's brilliant plan-making right there. _

"A surprise?" The girl said. Okay, she wasn't incredibly bright, that was something.

"Y-y-yes." Quinn said. "Ta-dah?"

_Fool. Enough said. _

Her arms crossed more tightly. "What kind of surprise?" She asked.

"Oh," Quinn said. "A great one. Truly great- umm, Gaia wanted to demoralise Percy Jackson," she said thinking of the person with the suckiest morale.

"You mean even more?"

"Exactly," Quinn said trying not to die inside. "So he sent me."

"Who are you?"

"His little sister," Quinn blurted.

"You don't look like him."

"I'm adopted," Quinn said.

"Well I suppose that then I should bring you to-" a sword appeared in the girl's hand and the tip was thrust under Quinn's chin. Quinn felt the metal's coldness on her. "Grey eyes like that, how stupid do you think I am? I know a child of Athena when I see one."

Okay; this girl was Greek, she'd proved this to Quinn on three strikes; 1) her sword was celestial bronze, 2) one of the chains around her neck had an omega on it, 3) she called Quinn's mother Athena even though she carried a Roman sword.

"I'm adopted," Quinn said.

"Adoption?" The girl asked. "I was adopted myself. Then taken back in by my real parents."

"That's where my life's going… We h-we h-have a lot in c-c-common Miss…"

"Atalanta," she said. "Atalanta, the runner."

Quinn was screwed.

* * *

><p>Guest- They're on their way to closing the doors of death. And I updated last week, but you <em>did <em>give me a heart attack :P

blah- Writing takes time I'm sorry!

monkeyjoe- yes

ajk- THANK YOU!

leolove- Leo, you need Frank. Stay.

a big fan- Maybe

trukfit- I killed that plot twist when Annabeth broke up with him. The whole idea behind the break up was that if he loved her, he'd do anything for her. But I should have made it more obvious. Next time :P

goodjob- SORRY I WON'T! Also MoA comes out on the 2 for me!

EditorGirl- Maybe and most likely it will be her.

bobthepegasus- Ha ha, it's always Grover isn't it? I love Grover.


	99. V Quinn, Jason

**Hey guys, short and late chapter today, but that's because I've had some serious editing to do and my computer was not with me today. **

**As you can probably tell I will not have this finished before Mark of Athena comes out. If I tried, it would suck, and sucking is bad. **

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>V<p>

Quinn

She swallowed and started making plans in her head _fast. _And she meant Road Runner fast, because that was exactly Atalanta's speed.

"Miss Atalanta, then." Quinn said to carry on the conversation.

_Well it was nice knowing you Quintina Hunter, except not really. _

"We do have a lot in common," she mused walking around Quinn, taking the blade of her sword from Quinn's throat. Her heartbeat was so fast she felt like throwing up. "We don't like relationships. We've both run our whole lives."

As the truth came out, Quinn was panicking.

"Please not now," Quinn said, her skull feeling like it was shrinking around her brain.

"Oh don't worry about me spilling the beans on your little secret," Atalanta said. "He isn't here to hear it anyways."

"Who?" Quinn asked.

_The president, of course. _

"The boy. Your boy. The one who you don't want to know above all else. He isn't there anymore."

_And he won't ever be again._

Quinn's heart dropped.

"Where is he?" She said her voice more serious.

The voices in her minds made some pretty devastating suggestions.

"That's not important," Atalanta said. "You know you can't have him."

_He was always out of your league anyways. Dust bunnies are out of your league._

_What are you talking about? _Quinn's insides were screaming. Jedediah was important. Jedediah was one of the most important to her. If Cate was dead, Hazel was dying, Annabeth had drowned, and Josie was fighting for her life with a god she despised… Nobody else seemed to have a fighting chance.

And to top it off; she _could _have him now. She could be happy, and loved and in his arms. It was like the fates liked tantalizing her as a hobby. So if he wasn't there; Quinn was going to have a problem.

_No, _she thought. _I'm a daughter of wisdom. I have a plan, and I _will _see it through. _

"Another way we're alike," Quinn said.

"Yes," she said. "I too fell in love despite warnings from the Oracle of Delphi itself. Love isn't something you can control. You must hate that as a daughter of Athena."

"It's like you read my mind," Quinn said.

_It's not a very long read. _

"I hated it myself," Atalanta said. "But he was charming. Strong, clever, courageous, entertaining, quick… It was the kind of love you don't fall into. The ground under your feet just gives out and brings you into it."

Quinn nodded.

"So do you understand why I have to free these people?" Quinn asked. "They're loved."

_Unlike some blonde over here. _

"Yes," Atalanta said. "But I can't let you."

"What?" Quinn asked.

She had a sword under her chin again.

"For falling in love the gods turned me into a lion," Atalanta said. "I pulled the chariot of Cybele for millennia. Do you know how shameful that is? How exhausting and humiliating? Do you have any idea what kinds of hairballs you have to deal with?"

Quinn couldn't say she did.

"This is my revenge," Atalanta said. "And I don't care who you are Quinn Hunter, or if you bare the same curse as I did. Because no one will stop me now."

She defaulted to her plan E.

"Well, considering we're so alike, I know that you can appreciate a good bargain." Quinn said. Atalanta didn't make a sign for her to stop.

"I know your story," Quinn said. "Your father insisted you marry after he took you back into his home after his initial abandonment. You knew the Oracle's warnings and respected it, so you accepted on the grounds that any man you'd marry would have to win a race, right?"

"Definitely Athenian," Atalanta muttered. Quinn looked past the hunter's shoulder and into the cage. Nico di Angelo was staring at her. The girl who must be Thalia looked about ready to run through the bars. These two were powerful, and Thalia could help lead the hunters into battle.

Mitchell was a son of Aphrodite, another fighter for the war. Mrs. Zhang was innocent. Grover Underwood could lead the nature spirits against Gaia.

"I'll make a bargain with you," Quinn said.

"Foolish girl," she heard Mrs. Zhang mutter.

_Yes, foolish girl. _

"I don't want to stress you out, but this is Atalanta whoever-you-are," Mitchell called out.

"Quinn, your mother needs you." Nico said. "Don't worry about us, you shouldn't be here."

_You shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be anywhere. You belong nowhere where the air you breathe could be used to fuel useful, normal, wholesome and purposeful human beings with half your flaws and twice your qualities. Then again, zero multiplied by two is still zero. _

"Shut up son of Hades!" Quinn burst. "I did not have a hell of a life time to be told to back down. And you will never pull me down out of all people."

Nico looked taken back. She wasn't sure if she'd ever talked to Nico, or if he just knew her name because Cate was friendly with him.

Thalia Grace whistled appreciatively.

Quinn turned back to Atalanta.

"A race," she said. "You're missing a prisoner."

"He escaped to try and accompany another one to freedom."

That would be Matthew.

"I'm guessing you didn't go after him because you think he'll die in this labyrinthine lair, so here's my deal; we race. First one to get to the prisoner gets to do whatever they want with him, and gets custody of these guys."

"That's a big prize."

"You can take it or leave it Miss; I am through with the mythological world's bull." Quinn said fiercely.

She had never talked like that in her life. _Ever. _

Atalanta didn't look convinced, so Quinn played her last card.

"Scared?" Quinn asked.

Atalanta clucked her tongue, offended.

"How dare you suggest I be afraid of a mere demigod?" She said.

"General impressions and educated hypothesis," Quinn said.

"You make a good bargain, I accept." Atalanta said. "Let's just see where he is first. A twenty second glimpse, how about that?"

Quinn nodded. Suddenly her legs felt like jelly and her heart stopped. That had _worked? _She was going to have to do this? Oh gods.

Atalanta reached into the pocket of her green track suit, pulled out a handful of dirt and threw it into the air. Something like an Iris message appeared.

Jedediah was running. His cheeks were torn apart as if he'd spent a night with a Bengal tiger.

"Matthew!" He caught a little boy's arm, who in response screamed and wrestled.

"No, no, it's me, it's Jed, Matthew." He said.

"She said not to believe anything I see you're bad!" Matthew yelled.

Oh bless his listening ears but _dang it Matthew cooperate. _

"It's Jedediah. Your brother's name is Bobby and you sleep curled up with Thalia because you think she's like Annabeth." Jedediah said quickly. Matthew stopped.

"It's really you?"

"For sure," Jedediah said. "Who told you not to believe anything?"

"You're bleeding," he said sounding terrified.

"It's okay, I'll fix it later," he said. "It looks worse than it is. Who said it? What did she look like?"

"Blonde hair," Matthew said. "And glasses."

Jedediah's eyes widened. "Was she pretty?" He asked.

Matthew nodded and Jedediah's eyes glazed over. "Quinn was here," he said.

Quinn felt like her chest was about to explode and her cheeks flushed red. He thought she was pretty? No- wait- priorities.

"That's her name," Matthew nodded. "She's Annabeth's sister."

"Right," Jedediah said.

"And she wants to take us out of here." Matthew said. "Everyone."

"Okay, so look; I'm going to give you a piggy-back ride. We'll get out of here, and make Quinn's job easier." Jedediah said.

Matthew nodded and climbed on Jedediah's back. Atalanta cut the vision.

"Double the prize at once," Atalanta smiled wickedly. "The boy and the child. Perfect. I'll see you at the finish line, daughter of Minerva."

And in a flash of green and purple, Atalanta was gone, and Quinn sped off as fast as she possibly could after her.

She wasn't exactly sure where she was going, she just sped off and followed her gut instincts as far as left and right went. Her heart beat. She felt her leg muscles wake up and go 'oh, so we're running?' after weeks spent mostly aboard the Argo II or crumpled in Ancient Greek alleys.

She didn't like gambling Jedediah's life, but she'd been ready to do it, figuring that he could hold off Atalanta until she got there. She had three last bombs to use. She figured she could make _something _happen if she didn't win this race- the one time in her life where she actually _had _to run. Now she had an eight year old boy's life in the balance as well.

But part of her was terrified because, other than her incredible speed and skills as a hunter, Quinn remembered one more thing about Atalanta.

If you were winning a race against her; she killed you.

Jason

Since their first dragon; Team Big Three (which was the working title Percy had come up for them since Hazel refused to be The Avengers) had struggled with a unicorn stampede, several Indian dragons, a sphinx, a pack of hellhounds, a sea monster that could mutate and come on land, and two adult female (read: more vicious) drakons.

This had not come alone, but had been followed with the discoveries of some insanely wicked hey-cool-I-can-do-that tricks such as forming solid masses out of multiple jewels wrapping monsters with ribbons of water, letting out a puff of air and causing a twister, causing dehydration, messing with the brain's electrical signals (although that had made Jason pass out as the third Indian-or-so-they-thought dragon showed up), and causing monsters' (or cousins depending on which was more annoying at the moment) feet to cave into the ground.

"I think Team Cube sounds cool," Hazel said.

"We are not Team Cube," Percy said. "Team Cube is like math."

"But there's a little three," Hazel said.

"That is not a good reason to call ourselves Team Cube. That's like calling ourselves Team Mathematics."

"Umm- I think I get to veto that one because my ankle is sprained." Hazel said. Jason was helping her limp.

"We seriously need to find some water," Jason reminded Percy.

"I'm working on it," Percy said. "But judging by the looks of it, we're in Egypt, so we're out of luck."

"Unless there are Egyptian gods." Hazel said.

"If there are Egyptian gods, I think I'll just die." Jason said. "I am already 600% done with _our _mythology."

"Put me down," Hazel demanded. "I know your legion instincts want us to march but we need a break."

Jason was about to object but Percy shot him a look, like, 'This kid shouldn't be walking after all she's just put in'.

Jason sat her down as gently as possible and Hazel crumpled on the sand and fell on her back. She coughed a dessert dry cough as if she was choking.

"I'm okay," she said. She didn't sit up.

Percy threw him a small pad of ambrosia. Their supply had started the size of half a loaf of bread, but they'd been chipping off pieces to heal so much… They were running low, and all of them were slightly feverish and giddy with the stuff.

He broke off a piece for Hazel and she just opened her mouth, unwilling or maybe even incapable of taking it from him. He just tossed it into her mouth.

"Rest up," Jason said, patting her knee before walking up to Percy. He didn't feel so good since he'd passed out a few fights ago, and he'd gotten blood in his eye from that brick thrown at his face in a little Malaysian village they'd super-accidentally gotten destroyed. But as crummy as Jason felt, the other two Big Three Clowns were either dying or mourning the loss of a sort-of-it-was-just-confusing-and-painful girlfriend, and both of them were injured to top their issues off (they were a sad bunch of clowns), and so Jason had taken control of keeping the morale up.

He took a piece of ambrosia for himself, sat down and handed their supply back to Percy.

"You okay?" Jason asked Percy. His cousin looked up from the sand where he was tracing patterns with the tip of Riptide. They looked like letters to Jason, and he had a bad feeling about what name they were spelling.

"Since you last asked, I think my hands have about one million splinters and my shoulder feels funky again, but I'm good." Percy said.

"I'm not talking physical, Jackson." Jason said.

Percy dropped Riptide.

"You know in Vietnam? That village got destroyed and you and Hazel took care of the sea-monster-on-land issue while I evacuated people through the sea?"

"Yes," Jason said. That hadn't been fun.

"Well there must've been thirty people that I got out of there." Percy said. He looked up at Jason and his eyes were impossibly deep and impossibly sad. "So why in the world did I miss my shot with the one person?"

Jason sighed. "I don't know," he said. He sat down next to Percy. "I don't think you missed your shot, man. I think she wanted you to let go."

"Her instincts are to survive." Percy said.

"Your instincts take the back seat when there's someone you love very much." Jason said. "That's why people like Frank are valuable."

"But Annabeth didn't love me," Percy said. "She made that _so _clear." His voice was breaking.

"She loved the world as a whole," Jason said. "All demigods do."

"I'm not getting that right now." Percy said.

"Well it's been a bad day."

"I'm done with the world and its problems and its stupid people with stupid debates and stupid mistakes and stupid hatred and discrimination." Percy said. "And considering that I've been at the receiving end of a lot of that, I'm not very charitable right now."

"Hey man, you can't start thinking about all the bad. That's how the bad guys start thinking. Think of the good. Hazel and I are your cousins and whatever else we are, we're here for you."

"Yes," Hazel called from her resting place.

"Every person who has set their feet on that boat is your friends," Jason said. "You've got a ton of others back home; Reyna, Dakota, Gwen- and the Greeks will go _nuts _when they see you again. Ditto for your mom and stepdad. And the world's exploring space and finding cures for disease and inventing food that tastes even better than food does now. It's messy but you can't give up on it."

Percy buried his face in his knees.

"I've been done with it since I saved it once. Why do I have to do it twice? I don't… I don't want to lose everything and have to rebuild again. Especially not if it starts a vicious circle like this."

Jason didn't have anything, so he used a trick he'd learned from Percy that he wouldn't have gotten from anyone else in the whole wide world.

"Well the good news is that two is the quota," Jason said. "Survive this day and it's all a piece of cake."

Percy grinned.

Humour was always fail-proof.

"Idiots," Hazel said. Something about fighting intensely with them was causing sense of humour failures in her and she was realising how stupid all of her cousins were. She was still lying in the sand, looking up, and she coughed again.

"Hmm?" Jason asked.

"Either I'm super dehydrated, or there's a pterodactyl coming at us."

Jason looked up and tried not to groan.

"Well, it looks like a pterodactyl," Jason said. "But it's probably a dragon, so I suggest we all get up."

He got up and pulled Percy to his feet. They hauled Hazel up, and Jason shot into the air with his sword raised and met the dragon just in time.

* * *

><p><strong>Annons<strong>

****SonofRome- Maybe, maybe, I KNOW, and maybe

Harryhas2424- That made me laugh, thank you!

booklover64- AAAAAAAAAAAAH! YOU! HI! OH GOSH HOW ARE THOU? Yeah, I remember you! It's good to hear from you again. I was _so _hoping someone would catch the Quinn/Atalanta similarities. Also Khione as the storm is something I thought I was crazy for- but at least I'm not crazy alone! I'm glad to see you again and I hope you're well :)

Rinboard- :OOO :DDDD Thank you!

random person- Well that's not very nice, now is it? Please refrain from vulgar language, it's not very nice.

Guest- Slap puberty from me? TAKE MY ACNE BACK! Please, I beg of you! :P

Rachel- Not always, sorry

someone- The 'Western Civilization' didn't refer to the West as in geographically. Those two countries have had great influences on the modern world, much like Greece and Rome, so I included them in. Your question is interesting, so I'm not sure if I replied correctly.

F*** this story- There are plenty of stories where Annabeth is not dead if you'd like to read those.

leolove- Leo, sweetheart, you're not very manly. (Don't worry, it's endearing)

bobthepegasus- Yeah, that nearly happened.

IDK- Oh my gosh come here and let me hug you for a million moons! Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it!


	100. VI Frank

** Okay guys, so obviously the REAL Mark of Athena came out this week. Obviously it was really good and obviously it had a really mean cliffhanger and obviously someone-please-hold-me-I-just-I-can't.**

**But I'd like to remind you all to try not to post spoilers. Why? Because if someone who hasn't read Mark of Athena starts hearing about how horrible ***** a** A******* ***l*** **** ******** was, then it sucks for them. And honestly, that book is just so good, getting spoilers would SUCK. So sorry to buzz kill, but you guys can head over to other parts of the Internet or send me a PM****.**

**Also I'm celebrating my 100th fanfic story and the 100 CHAPTER OF THIS STORY OH MY GOSH HOW AM I NOT DONE? Anyways, thank you for still reading this, you all get cookies!**

**Enjoy this chapter!**

** Disclaimer: me no own**

* * *

><p>VI<p>

Frank

Okay, so Khione couldn't hurt Leo and Leo couldn't hurt Khione but they were fighting to the death so things were looking _bad. _

"Guys- guys!" Frank tried to intervene. "Stop it, stop, you've got to stop! Dudes!"

"Zhang if you're gonna be delusional, be delusional over there!" Leo called as he dodged a snowball the size and speed of a cannonball. "Away from the major heated argument!"

Khione turned towards Frank, probably expected him to be distracted, and shot a volley of icy arrows at him. Frank's mind took control of his body and he was a falcon, shooting up, hitting the ceiling and falling back to the floor as a guy. He rolled and got up, shooting an arrow at Khione. He missed by an inch and had to roll again to avoid her volley.

Meanwhile Leo shot at the snow goddess. Her back arched and she gasped in pain. Her back was smoldering. Ashes fluttered from the back of her dress.

"Leo, stop!" He said. "Don't hurt her!"

"I said delusional over there!"

"Leo, stop, she's the storm!" Frank said. "Khione- you're in our prophecy- you've got to…"

Nobody was listening. For the first time in his life Frank wanted to be a sixteen year old Cherokee girl.

"STOP FIGHTING!" Frank said with the kind of deep voice that Centurions used to give orders.

"After she killed Annabeth?" Leo said. "Hell to the no, this hellhound's gonna pay."

"The daughter of Athena?" Khione huffed. "What about her?"

"You know!" Leo said. "Don't even try, you killed her with your stupid iceberg and water and stuff!"

The look of confusion on Khione's face was enough to tell Frank that she wasn't bluffing, she genuinely did not know what had happened an hour earlier. And it gave him an idea.

"Yeah right, be-yatch." Leo said.

"No- Leo, she's telling the truth. She's Asykas' guard," Frank said. It made sense in his mind, he was trying to put together and recreate Gaia's plan. "Why would Gaia make her do more? This job is too important; Gaia had to know we'd come for Asykas."

"How do you explain that Percy couldn't breathe underwater, then?" Leo said. "If you're telling me that we could have _saved _Annabeth…"

Leo blasted the snow goddess and her ice shield only lasted a second, but a second was all she needed to dissolve into a snowstorm and hover above Leo who shot fireballs up like Super Mario.

"No," Frank said. "No, no, no. Khione, Gaia's using your realm without your permission. She's ripping you off."

Khione raised her hands above her head, her ponytail curling in the wind she was creating. Frank suddenly got a clue-in in his mind, like Mars was handing out tips now. Whatever she was about to shoot would be quick and deadly.

He tackled Leo and they shot down a few feet away, but Frank's legs were dragging behind him and were caught in the line of fire.

He felt the most incredible pain he'd ever felt before, and yelled to show the world. He couldn't help himself, he felt as if Leo's fire was curling up his leg, shooting through his veins and arteries. They hit the ground and Frank rolled onto his back.

Leo's breath was caught but he was quick to get back on his feet, and he jumped in front of Frank, creating a huge wall of fire that melted incoming snow and ice projectiles.

Frank looked down at his leg and threw up at the side because it was _bad_.

It was mostly cut off. The bone was sticking out at the knee and blood was everywhere. Pain and shock made his vision fuzzy.

"Zhang, are you okay?" Leo asked looking over his shoulder. His eyes shot open even more. "Holly Styx no you're not!"

Frank had nothing to reply. His head was fuzzy, he couldn't do anything. Was that seriously his leg?

"Use your bracelet and get out of here!" Leo said. "Somewhere safe! Vancouver, Camp, New York, Sally Jackson's house, Argo II- whatever!"

"No," Frank said through gritted teeth. "You and Khione have to listen!"

He was going to blank out from the pain; he needed to get them to stop quickly. How could he get them to stop moving?

His brain flashed back to biology class on brightly coloured animals, and he didn't really have the time, energy or focus to think it through; so he just turned into a small yellow frog, 55 mm long at the most, and jumped on Khione which made his leg explode in pain that made him ribbit really loudly.

But he landed on the goddess' shoulder, right on the shawl of grass that Gaia had undoubtedly given her, so mission accomplished. Right after Frank the Golden Dart Frog fell back to the ground, leg hurting so badly he lost his focus and became human again.

Frank hoped to the gods that Khione wasn't immune to frog poison. He remembered that particular kind of frog because his biology teacher had shown his whole class a video on this species of dart frogs, called _Phyllobates teribilis. _They were badass for amphibians; they were smarter than regular frogs, super poisonous, had better vision, were great tongue hunters, and considered themselves invulnerable. Also that'd been the same day that he'd gotten the call saying he'd lost his mom.

The goddess stumbled immediately. She fell on her back.

"You should've done that ten minutes ago man," Leo said. "Let's go find Gaia and you can do it again. Are you okay?"

Frank couldn't say anything. He took a deep breath and propped himself up on his elbow.

Leo had a look at his leg.

"Dude, I… I think it's too bad." Leo said looking pale. "That… it doesn't look good."

"I need to talk to Khione," Frank said. "And you."

"I have gauze in my tool belt, just hang on a-"

"No, Leo, shut up, I have to talk to you the leg can wait." Frank said, though it didn't feel like it.

"What have you done?" The goddess choked.

"Shut up and listen," Frank said. "Gaia's using your realm. She used it to crash our ship and drown Annabeth."

"Gaia wanted the son of Poseidon to come bargain for her," Khione choked out. "To go to the doors of death and give himself up for her return."

"Well tough luck," Frank said. "That's not going to- oh… oh, Annabeth…"

She was a step ahead of them.

She was a step ahead of all of them; of every single mortal being on this planet that girl. All this time… All this time they'd been looking for the problem, looking for where the love had died, where Percy and Annabeth's relationship had gone wrong, what the_hamartia_ was. It never had, and that had been the problem.

Oh Annabeth.

"What?" Leo asked.

"Nothing," Frank said. "Everything…"

Percy would be crushed. And Frank had _told_ him to let go… He slapped himself in the head and went back to priorities.

"Khione, Gaia's ripping you off. She'll start by 'borrowing' your elements, then she'll completely take over your sphere of control. She's strong enough for it."

"And definitely low enough to do it, no pun intended." Leo said. "'Cause you know… we're underground…"

Frank ignored Leo.

"You have to pick now," Frank said.

"The Olympians will lose…" Khione croaked. He had to make her agree before the frog's poison seeped too deeply into her. He had about ten minutes.

"Yeah, but the Olympians aren't alone," Frank said. "They've got heroes, phalanxes, the legion, hunters, Amazons, nature spirits… If the whole world fights against Gaia… we may pull it off. If a few people don't try, the world loses everything, and those people will lose it all later. Maybe a month later, maybe a millennia- but you will lose it all."

"I'm not welcome at Olympus," Khione croaked. "It doesn't matter."

"I wasn't welcome at Camp Jupiter," Frank said. "But I showed up and got in. You can try."

Khione didn't move and Frank was about to blank out from the pain. Leo looked both confused and concerned, flames fluttering around his hands.

_"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call/ To storm or to fire the world must fall._ _" _Frank quoted. "You're both in the room. Fire, and Storm. Come on," he said. "Are you the storm, or are you a snow globe's inside?"

"I'm dying," Khione says. "It doesn't matter."

"I can cure you," Frank said. "You just need to say yes. You just need to make your choice."

"Such a big one," Khione whispered. Her voice was so soft, time was pressing. "I made one bad choice, and this bigger one looms over me… I sacrificed everything to make the first one."

"Don't talk to me about sacrifice," Frank said his nails biting into his own flesh. He had to keep himself controlled, look cool. Leo was still standing guard, but his eyes were darting to Frank's leg back and forth like he wanted to cover it up with an eternal supply of gauze.

"My honour for the world; it seems like an awful lot." Khione said softly.

"Don't act pitiful. The world is an awful lot. I've made some sacrifices. My mother died making one. I watched someone make one earlier in the morning. The girl I love is about to make one. You're not alone; you're not even close to alone."

Leo looked at him. His hand patted his pocket, and Frank didn't know what that was supposed to mean. His brain was fuzzy. Could Khione just _hurry up for the sake of Rome?_

"I accept," Khione said. "If I am the storm, son of Mars, then get ready for some cold. But you must save me first."

Frank's elbow collapsed under him.

"Leo, take off her shawl." He said, knowing he wouldn't reach.

"What?" Leo asked.

"Shawl. Off. Now." Frank said. "You're the only one who can move properly."

Leo did and tossed it away. It landed into the pit where Asykas was being birthed from.

Khione rose.

"How?"

"Poison- spreading through the shawl. It had the earth's powers in it, not yours. It was a longshot." Frank said. He couldn't even sit up. Frank didn't want to _know _how much blood he'd just lost.

"Did you just poison Gaia's baby?" Leo then asked.

"Nah, she's too powerful for that." Frank said.

"Oh well, it's the effort that counts," Leo sighed. "Man, your leg… I don't think it's going to heal. Not for a million squares of ambrosia."

"Allow me?" Khione asked.

Leo shook his head like 'no, no, no'.

Frank had just talked Khione into turning good. He'd healed her. He'd figured out a prophecy line. He rather get medical treatment from Octavian than the snow queen, but Khione was a goddess and she knew what she was doing. Hopefully. Frank didn't feel like he had much of a choice, and he had to stay awake. He had to keep fighting.

Frank nodded and nearly passed out, but Khione put a hand behind his neck and energy flowed back into Frank's body, ditto pain. He flinched and Khione put a hand on his leg. He screamed and swore but it didn't feel as… broken.

He sat up and looked at his leg. It was fixed, but barely. It was still broken. Leo was working on it with some gauze now, because gauze felt right. Leo also found a knee brace and decided that they should go big or go home. He also got a square of ambrosia, and never had anything tasted better.

"I'm a minor goddess," Khione said. "And I'm not a healer. The pain will subside, but I suggest you don't walk on it."

"Oh well that won't be a problem considering we're _at war." _Leo said.

Khione raised a hand to slap him, and Leo's fire hand left a glowing line in the air, but Frank snapped at them to stop.

"There are animals that don't use their legs." Frank said. "Khione, can we find a god to fix it?"

"I don't know if that's even possible," Khione said. "I… Gods can't undo injuries caused by other gods."

Frank was hoping that he had gotten it all wrong. So what, he'd lose his leg? He'd have to get it cut off? He'd have to walk with a prosthetic or not walk at all or find himself a wheel chair? He doubted there was a wheelchair that suited his particular part-pachydermian all-roman needs.

"Well screw you," Leo said.

"Leo," Frank said. "Calm down. We'll… we'll figure it out. Now Khione, you're going to have to tell us; where's Gaia?"

"I don't know," Khione said.

"You don't know?" Frank said. "And this is not you messing with us?"

"She said that she would… observe until her son rose. The newborn giant, Asykas."

"Yeah, we didn't forget about him," Frank said. "And what does she mean 'observe'?"

"Being a stalking creep," Leo said.

"She plans on launching an attack of her own proportions when the giant is born. She thinks the warriors of Olympus will be weakened and more vulnerable to her power, doubly so if they're paired up with a giant like him."

"Any way we can stop him before he's born?" Leo asked.

Khione picked up a rock from the ground and threw it. When it touched Asykas, the giant shot up an inch.

"Touching him makes him grow faster," Khione said. "So no."

"What if we poison the milk-stuff?"

"That won't work."

"And if I burn this place down?"

"We can't do that, we don't know who else is here." Frank said. Now that the pain was gone, he could think. His brain was calculating possibilities, opportunities, pros and cons and options. Just like on any battlefield. "What if Gaia's keeping the captives here?"

That's when Quinn burst into the room chasing a woman in a green tracksuit, and disappeared through another door seconds after. She was gone before anyone could even register that she was there, much less call out to her. She was sprinting like an Olympian athlete, faster than Frank had ever seen anybody, much less a girl mentally worn out by torture and bullying, run.

"Case closed," Frank said.

"We've gotta go after her," Leo said. "She _can't _get hurt."

"No," Frank said. "Quinn is fine on her own."

"How do you know?" Leo asked. "We may be abandoning her!"

"Oh for Jupiter's sake Leo, she's a daughter of Minerva. We'd probably just ruin a perfectly good plan of hers by jumping in." Frank said. "Besides, we have other priorities."

"Like what?" Leo asked.

"We have to go find our fathers and fight if we can't do more about Gaia and the giant. At least we got something accomplished," Frank said, looking at Khione.

"Your leg…"

"I've turned into a dragon once," Frank said. "I'll just do that again. Dragons are beast. Khione… You can keep watch on this guy. Contact us if something changes. Be ready to fight."

Leo looked like he was going to argue, but he decided against it.

Khione wandered off to go examine the pit and keep watch.

Frank put his hand on his bracelet and found Mars and Hephaestus. Tommy had changed locations. Piper was still in France, although far more to the North which made Frank wonder what exactly was going on there. Josie and Apollo were somewhere in the United Kingdom.

Leo knelt next to him and pointed out the big three children who were in South America and Frank didn't even know why. At least they were all okay. His eyes lingered on the little dot with the symbol of Pluto a little longer. It was still moving, still on the map… for every time the dot so much as twitched Frank wanted to say thank you. He wasn't sure to which god, though. Maybe just to Hazel for being a fighter.

"Frank, what you said to Khione, about Hazel… Is she really the girl you love?" Leo asked squatting next to Frank.

Frank was quiet for a second.

"Yeah," Frank said. "I mean, I don't know what love feels like, but my guess is that this is it."

Leo pulled something out of his pocket. It was a tiny ivory statue that fit in a palm of a small, skeletal girl with too much curly hair for her head, big eyes. Her sword was long, to her ankles.

"Hazel?" He asked. "What are you doing with a statue of Hazel, man?"

Leo launched into a very complex explanation about a myth called Pygmalion and his statues, and explained to Frank what had gone down at Anchises' house in Troy.

The story, for some reason, took more of Frank's energy out.

"Leo…"

"No, Frank, I swear…"

"I thought you said that delusional people should go over there," Frank snapped. "Why? Why are you even giving false hope? Gods- you didn't show her did you?"

"No!" Leo said. "I _just _made it!"

"Don't show it to her," Frank spat. "Don't show it to anyone. She's slightly okay about dying this time. Please don't ruin that for her."

"No, you don't understand!" Leo said. "I'm not done yet! Let me finish my story, sheesh! The statue was brought to life by Aphrodite- that's my key. That's the last tool I need, and I love her to death but not in the right way; she's my little sister. The only reason Aphrodite animated the statue was because someone needed it in their lives. Someone needed that statue to have a good life and be happy. And dude, if you love Hazel like that… you need her."

Leo gave Frank the statue.

"Just, like, keep it. I think. I don't know if I have to sacrifice something or draw a pentagram on the ground to make it work but… well, I know you didn't give up on her either; but I just can't let another person around me die."

"Leo, you never did that," Frank said. "Your mom…"

Leo missed Frank's explanation because he shook his head, waved bye-bye, and teleported away.

* * *

><p><strong>Annons<strong>

wisegirl- Good guess, but no.

SonofRome- I know, no Minerva children! (My bad) But I ADORED that part of the books! It was fabulous!

yiffy15- Yup

Guest- Please refrain from calling people names, especially vulgar names. And yes, I know. This is fanfiction.

percabeth4ever- Well, now he'll believe Jedediah more

Alethea Chase- Is Wattpad really worth it? And you'll have to see.

percyismylife- It's greatly appreciated!

Lover of this fa- You were _not _dissapointed!

Smiley face- Thank you!

Guest- Kay, I'll try to mention the camps

annabeth523- I quotes Avengers? That was an accident- my bad

Leia- Will try to do

nobody- They're in Greece! Also they're all over the old empires, so eventually they'll get to Rome.

EditorGirl- Hi! Okay, so Piper is still in France and she'll come up soon, ditto Quinn but she made a cameo. And I'm 14 and trying really hard.

Guest- She didn't use her bracelet because Matthew has it on him.

Athenasisters- YAY GLAD YOU LIKED IT!


	101. VII Quinn, Leo, Piper, Josie

**Hi guys! Sorry I'm late, yesterday I was grounded and I went to a haunted house with my friends. Funny story: I am Rachel. I led my friends through both haunted mansions and got us out of this corn labyrinth, and I only ran into the werewolf there ONCE! (He jumped fences the other times, but seriously that is not my fault)**

**Some questions asked a lot by the population:**

**Yes, I have read Mark of Athena. I had it finished six hours after I got my copy on October 2nd. So feel free to PM me about your feelings and rants and opinions, I'll gladly answer, but keep the review section spoiler free please**

**You guys have to stop asking me if I'll complete this. I've said it once and I'll say it again: I don't believe in unfinished stories, so yes I will finish this story. You will even get an epilogue. **

**Also everyone is asking me: Will I write a House of Hades story? Right now; I am not. Will I eventually? Maybe. I'm trying to wrap up this story, finish a dare I got to do 10-Days-of-Percabeth, and then… maybe.**

**Enjoy the chapter, sorry I'm late!**

* * *

><p>VII<p>

Quinn

She nearly ran into the wall as she turned down another hallway, but she couldn't stop running. If she stopped running, she stopped living- long story short.

Her plan wasn't great. Run like Pluto, avoid Atalanta, get to Jedediah first, kill Atalanta with his help. At two they could probably tackle the runner. This left a wide margin for error-

_You're not good at avoiding error. Or at anything for that matter._

-but Quinn had to try.

She took a sharp right after being told by the voices that some gruesome fate was waiting for her at the right. Electricity ran down each of her limbs and it was so bad, Quinn cried out and fell to the ground. She felt like she was having a seizure and tears prickled her eyes in pain and panic. Her vision was blurry as if she'd dropped her glasses.

For a while she army-crawled forwards, her arms dragging the rest of her body, and then she pushed herself up and ran.

The thing with pain was that it didn't kill you. It just told you that something was there to hurt you. The International Association for the Study of Pain said; "Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".

Quinn's nervous system was being hacked by the voices. There wasn't anything hurting her, they were just sending false signals through her body. She could keep running and nothing would happen to her physically, nothing stopped her. But she couldn't soldier through the pain, and it might just be the most frustrating thing in the world.

She made a left and saw Atalanta. She was ahead of Quinn and keeping good pace. Quinn put the petal to the metal and narrowed her shoulders to squeeze past her in the hallway, and proceeded to take more space in the hallway. Atalanta ran into her.

"Stay in your corridor," Atalanta hissed.

"This isn't a friendly sprint," Quinn replied. She ran faster, her legs going at speeds and strengths she hadn't had to achieve in a long time.

Pain was meant to motivate whoever felt it to get out of harm's way, not to do something stupid again or to protect an already injured body part.

Quinn couldn't get out of the way of this quest, she couldn't just sit down and not do her part, and the only part of her really injured was her heart. She had to keep pushing herself.

Atalanta pushed past Quinn and turned right. Quinn kept going straight although part of her thought of following the hunter.

Part of her was trying to make a plan, in case she couldn't keep pushing through pain and running, or if she was too slow.

_Oh you are. _

She remembered how Atalanta had lost the race that had landed her in a marriage she hadn't wanted. Her opponent had dropped golden apples on the race track, and while she stopped to gather them, he'd passed her. That explained the excess of loops and rings and chains the hunter was wearing.

She turned to the right.

Quinn didn't have anything of value on her. She had glasses, though it'd do more damage to drop them than to keep sprinting and try her luck. Her _gladius _was gold, but she needed a weapon too crucially to let it go. She didn't wear jewellery partially because it was frowned upon by most centurions, and her bombs had value but they weren't anything that would take the hunter's attention off the race, and not nearly enough to make her stop. Quinn wanted Hazel around really badly.

_A daughter of Pluto while you die- that has to help, now doesn't it? _

She couldn't stop running and look for it… But she needed another weapon, something long-reach.

That's when it came to her; where _was _she?

Gaia's Lair; but the place looked much older than something Gaia would have built recently (Annabeth had given her a few tips to identify the age of places), and there was no way that this was just for a military base. It was much too complex, vast and confusing to be one. This place had existed before Gaia's rise.

She'd used a word to describe it once- labyrinthine. That wasn't a coincidence; she was in the labyrinth. Annabeth had said that it was destroyed- but maybe it wasn't in Europe and Asia. Maybe this part of the labyrinth was too sturdy of a base to collapse. And if she was in the labyrinth… anything was possible and many spirits, creatures, nymphs and maybe immortals lived here. Maybe even the urban legend she was thinking of.

Oh gods, she hated making such a wild shot…

Quinn reached into her pocket and took out a denarius. She kissed it for luck and tossed it to the ground a few feet in front of her.

She ran and hoped so hard her heart was twisted into a mess. She was nearly passed where she'd tossed her coin. Oh no, oh no, oh no…

Then with a puff of smoke, he appeared next to her.

"Slow down girl, where you going like that?" He asked.

"Chasing Atalanta," Quinn huffed. The man was short with curly brown hair and sparkling eyes. His eyebrows were upturned and his features were pointy. "Who are you?"

"I'm who you summoned," he said. "Gaius, son of Mercury. I assume my legend got into the myths, much like Hercules. People have always complimented me on our resemblances."

"Umm, n-no," Quinn said. "I'm a legionnaire. You're one of our urban legends."

"Oh. I suppose that's good enough. Do they represent my splendour accurately?"

"No," Quinn said. "Yes! Of course, of course. You were a great merchant in the forum of Rome itself. Then when a praetor had an unexpected…"

"Difficulty," Gaius huffed.

Hoax.

"With one of your products, you were killed. But Mercury was proud of your…"

"Salesman skills."

Conman techniques.

"Yes, he transported you somewhere safe before your execution."

Every time she'd heard that story, Quinn had never thought that the labyrinth could possibly be that place until twenty seconds ago.

"Exactly," he said. Now Gaius was long dead, he was a ghost floating alongside Quinn gliding through the air as she ran. It didn't seem fair.

"Right," Quinn said. "Do you still run your business?"

"Yes, and I've expanded to magical items to accommodate the more common clientele in this-"

"Great, I need a tool."

"Splendid! A customer! I knew there was a market down here, I told dad _you know, the economy can't be _that _bad. _What kind of tool are you interested in, young lady?"

"I don't know, give me ideas," Quinn said.

"Hmm, well, you're chasing someone. My father once caught the nymph Cloris in a net he got from his brother Vulcan. It's second-hand, but in perfect working condition."

That would be good, but nets could be broken. Quinn's aim wasn't the best; if she missed (which was likely since Atalanta was a moving target), she was done for.

"Not that," Quinn said.

"I have winged sandals that everyone in my lineage likes a lot."

"I don't have time to learn to operate and get a hang of it," Quinn said. She turned left and lost the ghost for a second.

"Really, they're easy to operate. One easy command; 'Maia'."

"No," Quinn said. "Something else."

"Bombs are always useful," he said.

"No, I already have some." Quinn said.

Part of why Quinn loved the mythological world was that no matter what you said, you'd never sound like a terrorist.

"What? Preposterous! I have competition? This is my turf for sales!"

"No, I made them- they're not commercialised- please don't go!" Quinn said turning to the right.

"I warn you young lady, if I found out you put your little homemade low-quality-"

"They're perfect quality!"

"-Little toys on the black market, there will be Pluto to pay!"

"Of course, please, I need help!" Quinn said. "What else do you carry?"

"I carry Achilles' armour, impenetrable they said it was."

"What? The legion has been searching for it since the fall of Rome and you've had it down here!" Quinn said. She shook her mind clear. "What else?"

"I have one of the first whips the furies used. A prototype from back in Vulcan's early days."

This guy must've robbed _so _much of Olympus, Quinn felt disgusted. You couldn't rob someone's history and culture. That was like stripping a person of humanity.

He listed magical items- most Quinn recognised, but some were bogus (the dish drainer of Juno, said to sing like a peacock when the dishwater was hot enough). But Quinn only stopped him at one.

"Wait- c-can you say that again?"

"The necklace of Harmonia."

"That's perfect!" Quinn said. "I'll take, I'll, I'll take it!"

"But you didn't hear my price, girlie!"

"Say it," Quinn demanded making a hard left. Atalanta was there. Quinn spotted a rock on the ground, bent down as she ran, picked it up and threw it at the hunter's shins. She fell and Quinn jumped over her.

"Sorry- not sorry," she muttered. She made another hard left and a right and a left to lose Atalanta who would undoubtedly be mad. "Okay Gaius, name your price."

"You're putting much freedom on me, daughter of Minerva."

"I didn't say I'd accept it, just tell me. And make it fast." Quinn said. She _had _to be running out of time.

"I'd say… three heroic deeds, a quest and twenty denarius."

"You're j-joking," Quinn said.

"No, no," he said.

"Deal's off," Quinn said. "Have fun waiting for another customer interested in a _cursed _magical item."

Quinn's father had emptied his self-created college fund to support his brothers- one a cancer victim, one alcoholic- and had inherited the family bakery. She knew a thing or two about bargaining, she'd just never thought she'd have the guts to bargain. Then again, when all these people were in danger, it wasn't about guts anymore.

"No wait- I have the perfect price for you!" Gaius said. "One heroic deed, one quest, and twenty drachmas."

"You're overpricing it." Quinn said.

"What! I took two heroic deeds off!"

"Doesn't matter," Quinn said. "I doubt your whole stock is worst two heroic deeds!"

"Excuse me! I have the Pelian Spear in my stock! Best merchandise in the labyrinth!"

"Lamest prices," Quinn said making a hard left.

"Okay, okay- you bargain hard for a lady, especially a little one. I respect that. One heroic deed and ten drachmas."

"Nine," Quinn said.

"Ten."

"Eight."

"Ten."

"Six."

"Nine."

"Five."

"Nine."

"Four."

"Nine."

"Three."

"Three, three!"

"One."

"One?"

"One."

"Three!"

"One."

"One then," Gaius said. "But only because you're persistent and I can't catch my breath. You make a hard and very cardio-demanding bargain."

"I try," Quinn said. "I th-threw one denarii earlier. I assume you took it as you app-peared."

"No I did not."

"I- I have a friend who- who- who is a legacy of Mercury," Quinn said. "T-there is no way in Hades you didn't t-touch it."

Why was her stutter back? This aggravated Quinn. She was on a quest of her own, chasing Atalanta the hunter, she'd just bargained herself a magic item for less than the price of gas, but she just couldn't stop stuttering and being afraid of people.

_You're a desperate cause, what can we say? _The voices said.

_You made me this way. _Quinn thought back bitterly._ You made me scared. _

"You'll get your deed once I- I survive this war." Quinn said. "I want the necklace."

Gaius held out his hand and a necklace appeared in it; a chandelier necklace with black stones and silver chains.

"Made by Hephaestus himself to curse Ares and Aphrodite's child Harmo-"

"I know the story," Quinn said. "I have to go."

And so he floated behind her, his cold breath on the back of her neck, and fastened the necklace on. The metal was cold against Quinn's skin and every single cell touching it was yelling at her to take it off.

"You will hold onto your promise." Gaius said.

"If my plan works," Quinn mumbled making a hard left. "If not, I die."

Leo

He appeared at the wrong spot and nearly got trampled by a running giant. He was about two inches away from a stomping foot.

"Leo get out!" Someone yelled. He looked up and saw his dad, Hephaestus, in a chariot, hovering around the giant's head. Leo rolled behind, away from the feet. He nearly ran into an automaton- a legion of them was gathered around the giant and biting or snapping or shooting or whacking his ankles. Leo recognised an old friend, Buford the animated table, hovering around the giant.

Speaking of the giant, Mimi or whatever it was called, it was taller than Enceladus had been but shorter than Porphyrion. From behind, his shoulders made a heart shape and its legs seemed to have leg deformities that gave his walk a limp. He wore a chainmail muumuu of old tools holding together scraps of metal, horrid inventions and… some things that looked like they'd come right out of Camp Half-Blood's forges. His hair was like barbwire had been glued onto an obviously deformed skull and his face was smashed together like a pug. His rough skin seemed to have tiny volcanoes sprout from it like some teenagers had zits. Leo found that totally unfair. Why didn't he get the volcanoes?

Leo's eyes were still stuck on the inventions dotting his robe. There was even the animatronic centaur buzz-killer hanging in the back and helplessly bouncing against the giant's back.

Christopher had made that.

Leo's mouth tasted metallic now.

He put his wrists together and let out a long column of fire from his palms. The fire caught on the dry grass and Mimi started jumping from one foot to another like _oh ouch hot, hot ouch, ooh burn. _Leo swallowed back the Cartoon Network comments.

Hephaestus banged Mimi in the head and an automaton turned bright purple with happiness.

"Exterminate," one said. "Exterminate."

"Delete, delete, delete!" Another added.

"The silence will fall when the question is asked," Leo muttered. Some sense of humour Hephaestus had deep down behind that beard.

Leo blasted the giant another time with smoke and drew a hammer from his tool belt, without even accidentally using breath mints first.

This was a good day.

Piper

Piper rolled out of the way screaming in surprise. Mom had said 'I've got this'. Well clearly, no, she did not. There was a club mark on the ground where Piper had been ten seconds earlier.

"Mom!" She called.

"I'm sorry!" Aphrodite said. Piper raised Katoptris again and when the club was just inches above her head she ran forwards and ran on the giant Agrios' toes and up his foot, scratching at his ankles with her blade and not minding her nails much either.

The giant had been clubbed to death by the fates in the last war, but the three of them weren't anywhere to be found and Aphrodite and Piper had been the first to find him, so there they were.

His skin was as wrinkled as five senior citizens put together. His hair was sparse and white, thin as cotton candy. A long black vest touched the ground and he wore a black tunic- very humanoid for a Gigantess. His boots had buckles, laces and a zipper on the side. Piper had tried to climb up his legs via those once and it hadn't worked, but she was going to try again.

She had grabbed fistfuls of the tunic, had climbed past the knee and was around mid-thigh and about to stab while Aphrodite pelted him with sonic blasts when he shook her off. She was about ten feet in the air. Her shoulder didn't take kindly to that, and unfortunately it was the right one, her sword arm. Piper couldn't fight with her left hand for the life of her, which was conveniently what was on the line right then.

She hissed in pain under her breath, pushed herself up and ran before Agrios stepped on her. He wielded a spear as well as a club, and Piper felt the blade tip's cold on the back of her neck. Her shoulder was getting numb.

She'd tried charmspeak a while back, and that hadn't worked. It wasn't that big of a shocker that her main ability was useless, Piper blamed karma. If karma kept it up, she'd be forgiven for every time she'd been either clingy or ungrateful by the end of this war.

Now she couldn't fight so she needed something big… A showstopper.

Wait.

This giant… was a guy. She'd already had that effect on a lot of guys but…

She unclipped the chain on her neck and took off the ring. She touched the magic jewel to Katoptris and her dagger disappeared.

_Mom, I'm going to sound crazy, but get out of the way. Get out of here, I've got this covered. Disappear, but be ready to save my butt. _She thought hard.

_You're not feverish, are you sweetheart?_

_No Mom._

_Then I trust you._

Aphrodite changed shapes from a beautiful woman to a startling white dove, made even more startling by the grey ugly clouds covering the scenery, and flew out of sight.

The giant was confused.

"You shouldn't be so flustered," Piper said sprinkling magic onto her words. "I'm glad she's gone. Stupid goddess."

Agrios could have killed Piper right away, but he looked confused.

"You were fighting with her."

"Well I didn't have much of a choice, now did I? But now that she's gone, I can personally tell you that I think your side makes a lot more sense. I mean, who wouldn't want Gaia to destroy the gods, raze Olympus and control the earth?" Piper said.

"I know, right?" The giant replied in a deep and slightly robotic voice.

"Great, so… you don't have to kill me if we're on the same side?" Piper asked.

"No, no, I do. You're a demigod."

"Well that's a shame," Piper said. "I think you'd find me very… useful. I mean, I am a demigod. Daughter of Aphrodite, you know."

"I know." He said.

Piper wasn't sure whether she should be happy that her plan was working, or kind of freaked out. She wasn't much of a flirt to start with, but charming a giant?

_Tommy, please forgive me, I'm doing this for the sake of the world._ she thought.

"We could avoid all this weapons nonsense. You don't like them very much, do you?"

Agrios shook his head. "Not since the fates clubbed me."

"Well neither do I. I could… I could just show you where Olympus is." Piper said holding out her hand to him. "But alright, if you want to kill me…"

"Where Olympus is?"

"Yes," she said. "Come on. We could work so well together."

"Well alright," Agrios said after a few seconds of hesitation.

"But I need to see it first," Piper said layering on the charmspeak now that he was paying enough attention to her. "I'm too short. Can you give me a view?"

He knelt and opened his hand, like a child collecting a caterpillar from high grass. Piper got on and nearly fell back on her injured shoulder when he raised her. She stepped onto his shoulder and tried to find something to hold onto. Nothing but his ear, and that didn't look great so she'd rely on balance. She looked around. Only French countryside.

"Do you see Olympus?"

"Give me a second to take in the view," Piper said.

"Too busy looking at me?" The giant replied.

Piper felt like throwing up and chose not to reply to that. Ewe let this be over soon.

She slowly inched closer to his head. She saw the spot she'd aim for.

She started chatting on about the scenery at the East and he turned his head. Piper slipped the ring into her other palm and swung Katoptris, putting the dagger at a spot right behind the giant's ear. He screamed in pain as her dagger went all the way in, staggered, and there was a bright shot of light that dazed Piper so that she didn't realise when the giant was falling back, she just knew he was. And by default, so was she. She clasped the ring in one hand, Katoptris in the other, and suddenly she wasn't falling anymore she was standing on the ground looking at Agrios who was lying on his back.

Aphrodite had saved her butt.

"Nicely done sweetheart," Aphrodite was shouldering Piper and she offered a hand for a low high-five.

"That was strangely fun. But don't tell my boyfriend I just did that. I'll find a time and a place to make it sound not-awkward that I flirted with a giant." Piper said.

Josie

She and her poor excuse of a father appeared in

"I don't like this bow," she said looking at the bow in her hand distastefully.

"You don't have to use it," Apollo said.

"No, I do." Josie snapped. "I know everything, don't try to me, or make everything better."

Apollo looked at her. His blue eyes weren't of a friendly teenager anymore, they were deeper. "You're nervous about today."

Josie gulped. "What time? I never did know the time."

"Eleven thirty," he replied. She took a deep shaky breath.

"So two hours to go," she said. "Great."

"Josie," Apollo started. "You know that… that I wanted to give you something better than what you got, and the fates know that I tried but…"

"I don't want to hear it," Josie snapped. "Not from you, not from anyone. You're a _god_. If you'd have tried hard enough, you could have done it."

"I can't interfere with the fates," he said. "And you know that. You've known that since you were seven."

"I've known a lot of things since I'm seven," Josie said.

"Then you should know now, that you're a strong fourteen-year old demigod, that I wish more than anything that your life would've been better." He said.

Josie looked at him. Her mind scrambled for something to tell him. She'd had practise- she could snap back at people fast and wittily usually. But she couldn't phantom her thoughts into words and so it was one of those rare times where her actual feelings bled through their shell.

"I want to be mad at you but I can't because I know," Josie said. "But I'm still mad at you, but I know you tried, and you're not a bad father, and I know you tried to talk some sense into my mother but… I'm just always mad inside and I can't let it out because it would ruin too much, so I don't even know what I'm feeling half the time."

Apollo pulled her into a hug. She'd gotten two hugs in a day- one at the beach, one from her father. This felt more unreal than anything else.

"I don't care if you're not going to be a famous artist, if you're not a warrior, or even if you make it through this day. I'm proud of you." Apollo said.

Josie felt detached from her emotions after that crack.

"Okay," she said. She'd told Jason about Hugo, the crazy boy who chose to hang out with her on the streets. She had nothing left. "Let's go beat this giant. Ephialtes, isn't it?"

* * *

><p>ANNONS<p>

Sup- Oh my gods. Oh my gods- I'll just be weeping of joy in that corner, kay? Thank you so, so much that review was really touching. I will still write Jeyna.

Caitlin- Chiron and the state of the camps will only be answered at the very end. Sorry, but I have to keep the action rolling.

Guest- Exactly because of that. It added feelings, and I had to kill _some _romance.

Unkown001- I'll keep the death toll high of course, but not all the people you mentioned will die.

Guest- 14 years old

Lover of this fa- Thank you!

EditorGirl- Here, you had your Quinn!

Booklover_64- Yeah woops, nobody sent me the memo that Athena wasn't in Rome!

Lara D NLI- I'm so sorry! Yes, it's been deleted, and I'll delete any other ones coming in!


	102. VIII Percy, Quinn, Frank, Hazel

**Hi! Sorry I'm posting late, but I added a Quinn scene so I think nobody will complain :) (at least I hope not because it was a hellhound to write and I like it a lot. It's her moment- sorry, don't mind me). **

**I'm getting an increasing amount of questions about Leo's love life. Relax. Before the 'complete' button is hit, he will have one. **

**Also I had a question on tumblr about the possibility of a Jedediah and Quinn oneshot- that'll come at the end in the form of an epilogue. Yay, epilogues! For the sake of curiosity, what kind of format would you like for an epilogue? I have suggestions, and you're all so good to me and good to the story that I want to let you pick.**

**a) A chapter for a group of two or three characters (eventually they will all get done) **

**b) One big scene where everything is summed up**

**c) PoV's of the second generations and younger demigods**

**Enjoy today's chapter, guys!**

* * *

><p>VIII<p>

Percy

He was letting out such a long string of cussing that Hazel was looking at him with her jaw dropped.

"Calm down," Jason said grabbing his wrist to stop him from flailing it around in the stupidest reflex ever appointed to demigods.

Jason pulled Percy by the wrist to a creek, Hazel covering them from behing. Percy was still swearing. His hand was pierced. Like one side to another pierced by that giant scorpion's stinger. It was ridiculous.

Jason pushed Percy's hand in the creek and it started stinging even worst. Blood started drifting down the water, and so did something green and nasty. Scorpion venom. Joy.

Jason brought Percy's hand out.

"Anyone got any gauze?" Jason asked. Nope. He tore a strip of his pretty beat-up hoody off and wrapped it around Percy's palm before it started bleeding too badly again.

"Gosh Percy are you okay?" Hazel asked, her face wincing. Her face was covered in scratches from that stampede of ghost mice. They'd done the weirdest things in the last few hours.

"Yeah I'm good now," Percy said.

"Great, so now I can yell at you about how stupid you were for having your hand where that Empoussa was throwing her spear," Jason said smacking him on the side of the head. "What in Rome was it you were trying to do, catch it?"

Quinn

She spotted Atalanta again, and this time Quinn was ready. She unclipped her necklace from her neck, the necklace of Harmonia, and threw it. It landed in front of Atalanta, whose foot slipped on it. She hit the ground with a bang, and Quinn pushed herself.

Now that a plan had been created and her mind was at rest, her body was demanding all of her attention. Her legs were screaming out. _Stop. _Her lungs felt like they'd explode and her mouth was as dry as the Sahara.

That didn't mean she had to listen to them and stop.

Atalanta, instead of getting up, was examining the necklace.

The necklace had been given to a daughter of Mars and Venus, Harmonia, by Vulcan. Vulcan hadn't been too pleased with this illegitimate child of his wife, so he'd cursed the necklace, naturally. It brought misfortune to all who wore it, and Quinn was hoping that the misfortune was _huge. _

She brought the chain up to her head, and Quinn ran. She ran, ran, ran and passed the hunter again. It took a few seconds for her to break her eyes from the necklace, realise what was going on, protest, and come after Quinn. But the necklace was fastened onto her neck, and that was all Quinn needed. She'd exposed Atalanta's fatal flaw; her greediness and attraction to gold.

From that point on, it was like the hallways suddenly had signs on them. Quinn's instincts blossomed and she knew when turning to the right was a good idea, when going to the left was more favourable… The one time she saw Atalanta again, the hunter tripped on a rock.

It gave her courage, and she ran. She did like she tried to do when she was little; run so fast she left the world behind. Run so fast that Atalanta, the other possible dangers lurking in the labyrinth, Gaia, Annabeth's death, the voices couldn't keep up. Quinn had never succeeded, but in that moment she felt infinite.

Finally she ran into someone and Quinn nearly burst into tears when she put her glasses back on and saw him. Her muscles were even more on fire when she stopped.

"Jedediah!" She cried. She wrapped her arms around him even if it wasn't the time. He didn't let go of her, and he got them both to their feet.

The voices in Quinn's head were louder than ever.

"You're hurt," she said touching his chin to lift his head up to examine his cheeks, ripped up and bloody. Dust gathered on the edge of his cuts, and the blood had dried up in some places, still ran in others. She spotted one that was definitely infected by now.

Even if he was in such bad shape, her heart skipped beats. Green eyes, shaggy chestnut hair, kind face, gentle eyes like a doe… He was even wearing his military jacket, light washed jeans, and the same sneakers as always. It was him, and he was alive, and she'd found him, and she'd beaten Atalanta to it.

Maybe Quinn _was _infinite.

"It's nothing," he said. "I'm okay. Gods, you're not hurt, you're fine? Quinn you look… you look amazing."

Quinn blushed. She was dirty, her hair was a mess, she was sweaty, she was exhausted, her eyes were probably unfocused and rabid looking because of the voices, her throat felt like salt paper, her heart was pounding so hard that the little ability to make sentences and fluid words she had was definitely gone for good… She must've run twenty kilometers.

"What are you doing here- why- how?"

That's when the arrow was shot and Quinn got nicked in the shoulder.

"Quinn!" Jedediah said catching her arm. Atalanta had a bow drawn, and it was empty.

"We had a deal!" Quinn said. She felt like crying. What more? What now?

Jedediah felt the overcharge of emotion, or maybe her voice was cracking and she just couldn't hear it because of the voices… he took her hand. Electricity went up Quinn's arm. _He was holding her hand why was this such a big deal but oh it was._

"We said whoever got to the two loose prisoners first," Atalanta said. She pulled someone out of the shadows. Matthew. "But we're each got one."

"I left him hidden when I heard someone coming," Jedediah whispered to her. "Please don't tell me I just messed up."

"So-so how do we f-f-fix this? I obviously found the-the worthy one." Quinn said. She drew her sword. A duel, that's what she was expecting from this one.

Atalanta laughed. The necklace of Harmonia glittered against her dark skin and all the other chains.

"Please, daughter of Minerva. Do you really think I'd fight you myself? Especially with a hungrier predator nearby?"

"Hungrier…" Quinn whispered.

Suddenly she got a chill down her back. The kind of chill that came with thinking you were being watched- or if you were a demigod _know _that you were being watched. But it was deeper than that, and Quinn immediately feels five years old. The part of her brain related to instincts given by Minerva flared, turned on suddenly, sounded the alarm, told her to run like the wind.

Quinn turned around and saw the biggest spider she'd ever seen. She screamed in pure shock and realisation.

It spat a net which catches Jedediah, cocoons him up thus ripping his hand from Quinn. Again. Once more. Quinn was ticked.

She felt like passing out. She took one good look at the big mother of all spiders and decided _nope. I am so done with this reality, I don't want to deal with this. Nope, nope, nope, get me out of here, get me out of here._

But that wasn't how being a demigod worked, and it wasn't how being Quinn worked.

She raised her sword and Arachne laughed.

"I do enjoy revenge," the spider said. "And there is no better revenge than touching the children of your enemies."

Quinn steadied her gladius with her second hand.

"I-In that case you-you aren't exacting any-any revenge." Quinn tried to sound brave but the stuttering killed it.

_So does your face._

Oh look who was back, right on time. Joy.

She felt like bees were stinging her arms as soon as the thought entered her mind.

Arachne laughed.

"You children of Athens are so brave. But sometimes you are so stupid; I forget who your mother is."

"I'm NOT STUPID!" Quinn protested. That was the one insult she couldn't stand. If she had one thing, it was her brain. Take away the brain… "You want to see how Minerva fights? How we do it in Athens? Fine Arachne. Fine."

And so Quinn ran between the legs and thought _what am I doing? That is a large spider, I am a small girl, and I will die. _

Percy

The river monster had jumped out of the water and Jason had basically told Percy 'you're the boss' with this one. They'd gotten good at dividing up the work. Which sucked, because they wouldn't be doing this for much longer since the newborn giant would rise and the world would be taken over by Gaia soon. Percy wasn't exactly optimistic about chances this time. His luck had worn out when Annabeth had died. Part of Percy was already wondering what he'd say to her in the Underworld. If for some reason she'd have forgiven him. He knew that he shouldn't, he knew that she'd walked all over him and treated him horribly but… well, it was like people who couldn't quit smoking. It was just too hard.

Anyways, that had gone down rather quickly. They were walking downstream, where they could possibly have a drink before Tommy zapped them. Percy was going to have to talk to the guy about coffee breaks and the many benefices of them.

That's when the other river monster popped out, of course.

Percy raised Riptide but Hazel stomped her foot and several pillars of rock jumped out of the earth.

"NO!" She said facing the monster, hands curled into fists and brow furrowed. "Gods damn it no, that is enough, and this is not necessary, _leave!" _

At each word another pillar came up.

The river monster shrank back.

Jason and Percy looked at each other over their cousin's hand. Hazel was a small ball of fury. Cute and all, but small and furious.

They gulped and Jason put an arm on Hazel's shoulder.

"Erm… Good one…" He said. "Let's go get that drink of water before you scare the living- I mean, before another monster comes out."

Frank

He was flying around as a dragon. Why? Because dragons didn't need legs to function and be violent. He still felt his leg, and holly smokes it hurt and redefined pain, but at least he was keeping off of it.

Unfortunately his father had found himself the ugliest giant to fight, which didn't surprise Frank at all.

Mimon was such a brute Frank had to check twice for the face. Swollen, calloused, scarred skin- Frank was pretty sure that Mars would look like that if he wouldn't have the ability to fix himself up with magic. Mimon had the build of Hulk and he was armed with more metal than you'd find in a small country.

Mars was still trying to understand why Frank couldn't be human. Frank was trying not to get pushed off Mimon. He had his dragon tail wrapped around the giant's thick neck and the guy was gargling. Frank was losing his connection and focus though; his leg was sandwiched between his body and the giant because he didn't know dragon anatomy as well as he should and it _hurt. _

Mars grew in size until he matched Mimon, not something Frank wanted to see ever again. He pulled back his spear arm and launched the lance, which pierced Mimon through the chest. Frank tightened his grip around the giant in one final burst of adrenaline and sunk his heavy fangs into the giant. It tasted horrible.

Mimon yelled and cursed but he slowly collapsed into dust.

Quinn

She stayed underneath Arachne's bulky abdomen, where the spider couldn't see her. The plan popped into her head in a matter of second, crystal clear. So did Plans B, C and D. Also the emergency escape plan, though that one didn't include a way of getting Jedediah and Matthew out of there so she didn't consider it complete.

She stood still under the giant spider. The horridness of what she'd just seen couldn't get out of Quinn's mind.

Arachne was a black widow- with a huge black abdomen decorated with a red lozenge. Like a twisted centaur, after the creature legs there was the torso of a woman wrapped in ribbons of woven fabric. Her skin was thick and heavy like she was gruesomely modeled of clay and her hair seemed to be dreadlocks of cobwebs. Her eyes were empty black sockets, and her mouth was one huge gaping hole filled with long needle pointed teeth.

When Quinn lived with her dad, she used to see a spider and scream. Her dad and grandmother didn't even ask anymore, they just came in with a tissue to smash the spider whenever Quinn hit the high notes. When she'd moved to Camp Jupiter she'd managed to be somewhat more dignified. She's see a spider and speed-walk the other way, biting down on her lip hard and concentrating on the numbers of Pi or First Aid acronyms like RED and WARTS.

She didn't have that option now.

When Arachne scattered around, Quinn did too. "You little pest," the spider hissed.

Quinn couldn't keep it up forever, she was already exhausted. She was waiting for the spider to shoot…

"If you don't like me, then you mustn't like my webs, sweet one." Arachne said.

Exactly.

Quinn rushed to one of the legs. The spider shot out web in a way no normal spider probably could, and Quinn hit the deck. The silk wrapped around Arachne's leg.

Quinn's father had tried to coax her out of fear with a Marie Curie quote. "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." To get him off her case, she'd looked up spiders and hid the pictures in the books. Spider silk was more resistant than any fibre made by man, and it was estimated to be able to stretch to 40% of its original length. Quinn was going to test that.

The spider hissed. Quinn ran out from under her now that it was angry.

"Ha! And you-you call m-me s-stupid?" Quinn said. She wasn't good at taunting. She needed someone brave and courageous, with many successes to their name. Jason Grace: that was who.

Arachne hissed. "You will pay greatly for this, daughter of Athens. I have no time for tricks and foolishness."

"That's okay. T-this w-won't t-t-t-take long," Quinn said.

If she didn't stutter, she may have potential for sass.

Arachne shot another web at Quinn. She braced herself, ready to absorb the impact. She stood there looking like a stunned dear for a while, but she stuck her hands out at the last minute and grabbed Arachne's web and didn't allow it to shoot out completely.

Quinn charged at the spider's legs and grabbed it. She screamed in horror-the leg was hairy.

She swung around it as if nothing had happened but she felt some hairs staying on her hand and she nearly threw up.

She wove around Arachne's legs, occasionally popping outside to get the spider angry. She struggled against the silk, tightening the knots Quinn was weaving.

The shoulder that Atalanta had pierced with an arrow hurt and Quinn was analyzing her possibilities. Left arm: inured, so she could hold her sword but probably not for much longer, and probably not swing it. Right arm: stuck with sticky spider silk. What would she do if this came down to a fight? After all, Atalanta was just sitting on the sidelines, waiting for Arachne to fail. The hunter was already looked recuperated from her run. Quinn was even worse off than before.

She focused on the present. She'd stretched the web as much as it went. Quinn took a deep breath and ran out one last time.

This passage of the labyrinth was plain but for one thing. The hangers on the walls bearing torches, although have of them were empty or snuffed out.

Quinn ran for them. She couldn't jump very well, but she had to give it a try and made a quick prayer.

_Mother, I know you're busy but please. This was your enemy first, and I'm trying really hard to make it the last your children see of her._

Quinn kicked off the ground and jumped. She nearly fell back before she could get around the torch hanger, but suddenly something propped up her heels. She looked down and saw ghostly white and silver spectres. Girls and boys in clothes ranging from ancient Greek chitons to Elizabethan breeches and doublets, their hair either Athena's ink black locks, or Minerva's light curls. Despite the lack of colour, their eyes were all one uniform shade of bright, bright grey.

The girl in front of her was Annabeth. Well, Annabeth's specter.

"The doors of death are open," she said. "These are our brothers and sisters, Quinn. We're here to help you. We were all scared of spiders, and you can end this round of vengeance. Go on with your plan. People are taking care of Jedediah, and Matthew is being protected. Go Quinn, you go." Annabeth's eyes were full of pride and her lips were pulled into a smile. She was dressed in her usual jean shorts and camp T-shirt, with a Yankee cap on her head and a dagger at her waist. The hair loose down her back was dripping wet.

Quinn jumped over the torch and landed like a cat. The children of Athena and Minerva gathered around her and helped her pull. Arachne was pulled onto her back.

Someone put a cold compress on Quinn's shoulder. Someone else pulled a potion down her back and started listing side effects such as drowsiness, fever, nausea and headaches and how this product wasn't recommended for pregnant woman and people suffering from depression. Someone fed her a square of ambrosia- all different hands, all at once. This magic combination reloaded Quinn's energy, she felt alive and buzzing with energy and strength and health, even the voices died down a bit.

"This is a very short burst," the boy with the cold compress said. "Unfortunately I died before I could find a way to extend the effects. So go, little sister."

Quinn dropped her sword and wrapped her left hand around the silk connected to her right.

She spotted Jedediah still wrapped in the cocoon. Someone was kneeling next to him, holding a magnifying glass and a ruler.

Everyone grabbed the silk, and they all pulled. Arachne was eventually flipped despite her protest, and she floated in the air, held up by the silk wrapped around her eight legs and Quinn's knots.

There was a cheer.

Someone started counting 'Heave! Ho!' and soon it was just a pile of cheering as they raised the spider off the ground again.

"And drop!" Quinn called. A sister next to her said it loudly and clearly: Annabeth.

The Children of Athens did and the spider was then raised up, eye sockets wider and skin paler.

"Heave-ho!" Quinn said, this time her voice loud enough on its own. "And drop!"

The spider was knocked out cold after three more rounds. Her legs curled up on themselves.

Quinn took it upon herself to check for breathing. She ignored the spider bit of Arachne, and concentrated on the female abdomen. She wanted to be a doctor: she could deal with humans.

After a quick poke and nearly running back into the crowd and making someone else rush out to check, Quinn brushed her hair behind her ear and put her ear to Arachne's chest.

Nothing.

Quinn looked up and it must be clear in her eyes. A huge cheer shook the labyrinth. For the first time, people were cheering for Quinn. It was her very first standing ovation.

The voices weren't even there to say that it would be the last.

Suddenly everybody wanted to get close to the spider.

"I estimate it 1,9x10 superscript 56 times larger than a regular specimen," a girl said.

"Dear me, I must ask how _do _those stick legs hold up that weight?" A boy wearing a Victorian looking coat said.

"Oh gods, it doesn't matter," Quinn said holding her face in her hands and shaking her hands. She was shaking so badly, it must be a 9 on the Richter scale. "Oh gods, not, not- right now it doesn't matter…"

Quinn backed up straight into Atalanta in her state of horror and disconnection from the real world.

"You," the hunter said fiercely. Harmonia's necklace was still around her neck, Quinn noticed. "That's it. Let's see you win something on your own, little girl."

Her sword swipe grazed against Quinn's stomach, but only pearls of blood dotted her purple shirt. The injury was a taunt, very superficial.

Nonetheless, Quinn took a sharp inhale of breath and backed up.

"Quinn!" Annabeth called, tossing her a sword. Her sister was now next to Jedediah.

Quinn took on the biggest duel of her life.

Atalanta was quick and skilled and experienced. Quinn usually had legionnaires at her side and she was still rather new at duels. Plus her hand was stuck to the silk holding Arachne, it was ridiculous.

She didn't have to duel, though. What had been her Plan C was now her Plan A.

She reached into her back pocket and took out a bomb, keeping it behind her back. Her thumb flailed around until she found the pin. She slipped her thumb nail under it and Quinn's heart was beating so fast Quinn's chest hurt. She pulled it out a bit. Not completely. And then she flicked her thumb up completely, pulled her shirt over her nose and threw the bomb. It landed at Atalanta's feat and the hunter fell immediately under the effects of the minor sedative. Quinn hurried away, facing the wall, bundled up. Her breath was warm inside her shirt.

She waited ten seconds and turned around. It should be clear. She walked to Atalanta, raised her sword, and stabbed down before she could rationalise what was going on. The hunter's back arched and she choked. Quinn nearly cried.

Most of the ghosts were gone, Quinn was nearly completely alone.

"You mentioned how we were alike earlier," Quinn said her voice shaking. "We were both scared to love because we were told to. We listened to the fear we were given, not what we felt because let's face it- we both think that love is right. Here's your mistake Atalanta: you weren't scared of me, because nobody told you to be. I'm Quintina Hunter daughter of Minerva, servant of Rome, Defeater of Arachne. You should have been very afraid."

Atalanta looked up. "Indeed I should have," she said.

She raised her left hand, on which only one ring glittered.

"The ring," she urged. Her voice was quiet and shaky. "Keep it. It's my wedding ring. Take it; it will remind you of your curse and steer you away from my mistake."

Quinn's hand shook as she took it.

"I will keep it," she said cautiously choosing her words. "But I am not cursed."

And then Quinn spoke three words she'd never spoken before, and that nobody had ever told her before.

"I am perfect."

And then she started crying for good.

Hazel

Once she joined the legion, the person who'd been nicest to her was Jason. And one of the key lessons he'd taught her was how to figure out if she had a concussion or not because he promised her she'd have them. He made a list of symptoms; headache or pressure in the head, confusion, dizziness, ringing in the ears, nausea, slurred speech, fatigue, sensitivity to lights and noise, irritability, concentration and memory problems, unsteady walking…

Hazel felt like she had a concussion. She had to focus on Jason and Percy's feet to walk right and know she was going the right way. She was exhausted- _so freaking exhausted. _She felt like she was going to throw up everything inside her, bones and muscle and organs included. The lights all around her were hurting her eyes as if she'd emerged from a black room and created dancing black spots in her visions.

It wasn't a concussion.

It was death.

It was Hazel's curse on her. Her curse wasn't the diamonds and the rubies, her curse was death. It followed her. It'd gotten her once, and it'd followed her around to have it twice.

She was leaning on Percy and her feet were on Jason's knees.

Percy put an arm around her and squeezed. "You're being strong Hazel."

"I'm going to die after this." Hazel said.

"No you're not," both boys said at once.

"I will," Hazel said. "I don't know when or how, but I will. Maybe I'll just collapse. Or I have a heart attack or aneurysm or seizure or something."

"Hazel, stop it." Percy said. She ignored him.

"I don't even know if I see Frank again. I just want you to say bye to everyone for me if I don't see any of them again." Hazel said. "Tell Quinn and Josie they're the first friends my age I've had in a long time, and tell Frank…"

"Haze, don't you talk like that." Jason said. "Don't you even dare _think _like that. It's not over yet. We're all hurt and tired, but it's not over and it's never going to be over, okay? Because Percy and I, we're still here, and we will never let anything hurt you. We'll watch you, and protect you."

"Like big brothers," Hazel whispered.

Jason and Percy looked at each other.

"Exactly like big brothers," Percy said. "Exactly that."

Hazel looked at her hands. "I've never had a big brother before."

"We've never had a little sister," Jason said putting a hand on her knee. "It works out. We're all in this now."

Hazel bit her lip. For some reason she'd been bitten by hellhounds today, but this made her cry instead. Change hurt more than routine. Change was being cared for; routine was being hurt.

"I get two at once," Hazel said.

"We get you," Percy said putting his arms around her. "I think we win."

* * *

><p><strong>ANONS<strong>

**Randomness Rocks- Hi! Thanks, I'm really glad you liked the story! And I hope that the Author's Note answered your Leo question.**

**InsertNameHere- No, I hadn't, but I think that's a brilliant idea.**

**Sup- It shall! You are. And I possibly did just intone that Josie was gonna die ;)**

**Guest- Hey cami! How's it going?**

**EditorGirl- I do know where the story is going, yes. I don't just pull a chapter out of my butt every week :P (though that sounds simpler although possibly painful. I mean, paper cuts…) I actually have thought of that, especially now that it's ending. I'll do it more with the epilogue, though.**

**Anonymous- Aww! That's really touching, thank you! You'll be glad to hear that I have 6 stories down, and a bunch half-way there for the Ten Days.**

**Guest- You're welcome for the Percy.**

**Caitlin- Thank you, glad you liked it!**


	103. IX Quinn

**I'm so sorry I'm late! It's just... I volunteered and I cleaned up a girl guide camp and I studied for a test and I freaked out and I worked on my Ten Days of Percabeth project/idea and I panicked and-and-and- I'm sorry.**

**Here is your chapter.**

**While I'm here; all of you are really concerned with Leo's love life. Relax. He does not grow up to be a hermit. But right now, there are bigger priorities than Leo's romantic side, especially when you'll read the end of this chapter, so just wait patiently, kay? Cool.**

**Happy Halloween to all who celebrate it. Today I will be a Padawan for the day.**

**Also I'd like to wish safety to everyone who's dealing with Sandy right now. **

* * *

><p>IX<p>

Quinn

Annabeth held a match very close to Quinn's hand. The spider web burst into an inferno for less than a second and then the whole thing melted off.

She waved the match around to dissipate its smoke, and smiled at Quinn. Neither of them knew what to say, and that was saying something.

The younger sister put Atalanta's ring on and chewed her lip nervously. Even after that, she chewed her lip nervously.

"When all this is sorted out… do you want me to tell Percy why you _really _broke up with him?" Quinn asked to break the silence.

Annabeth looked away from her. Her face was bitter, but such a sad bitter that it wasn't shocking or scary.

"No," Annabeth said. "His heart's broken enough. I've been watching some of his fighting and… well, it's the best fighting he's ever done, and he's found power to match his." Annabeth's eyes glittered and she bit her lip. "I'm proud of him. I don't know if I'm allowed to be anymore, but I'm proud of him. My reputation doesn't matter: I'm dead. But tell my dad, and also Chiron if… well, I doubt he's still alive but if he happens to be I'd like him to know that they raised me better than that."

Annabeth smiled at Quinn. "I'm proud of you."

"I feel different."

"You're not different Quinn. You were always this incredible deep down." Annabeth said. "I'd hug you right now, but I can't touch you. You're alive and…" Annabeth said.

"I know," Quinn said voice raw.

"But Jedediah can," Annabeth said. "Leah is working on it."

Just in time the webs around Jedediah caught to fire. Annabeth, the ghost Leah and the one who'd been hiding Matthew's view of the horrible fight all disappeared.

Once again, there was no goodbye to her big sister.

The shock of suddenly realising what had just happened, what she'd done, and what was going on was so big that Quinn ran to the wall and threw up, bundled against the brick. She staggered away and faced Jedediah who was getting up, shaking cobwebs off. He saw the giant spider, and he looked at Quinn as if he was wondering why she wasn't unconscient or screaming her lungs out.

"I killed Arachne with the help of a few ghosts," Quinn said shyly.

Jedediah came at her and grabbed her in a hug as if he knew how demanding it'd all been, and Quinn's muscles all gave out under her. Tired, overworked, shocked… She was done.

He gently lowered her down, they were kneeling now. She _would not _lift her head from his chest. She refused. She had the right to just forget the world in his arms for twenty million years now.

Matthew came out of his hiding place and Jedediah and Quinn opened their arms, and they made their tight hug a warm big hug for the scared little boy.

"Who were the grey people?" He asked.

"My brothers and sisters who aren't alive anymore," Quinn said. "Kind of like ghosts. They came back to help me."

"So why was Annabeth there?" Matthew asked.

Quinn's blood froze and she looked at Jedediah who looked just as helpless. But he knew, she saw it in his eyes.

"She was helping them," Quinn said.

"Tell you what," Jedediah said. "Quinn needs to go get the others out of the cage, okay? So I'll give you a piggyback ride."

Matthew nodded and jumped on Jedediah's back. Quinn got to her feet. She picked up her gladus and kept it on guard even if she wasn't sure she'd have the energy to use it if they needed it.

They traced their steps. Quinn's luck with Harmonia's necklace seemed to persist still, and they found their ways back easily. Jedediah let Quinn lean on him, and he was teaching Matthew a song to keep the little boy from thinking too much about the ghosts or the spider or the war. _"They say that in the army, the food is mighty fine. A pea rolled off the table, and killed a friend of mine."_ Matthew was giggling and singing along.

They got into the main room where the prisoners were kept.

"Jedediah!" Thalia said jumping to her feet. "Quinn!"

"They're back?" Nico asked from a corner.

Quinn shook the bars for a second. They were very weak, weaker than before. She took her gladus and sliced through them. The bars splintered and crumbled as if they were toothpicks.

Half of the people in there poured out quickly. The other half stumbled onto their feet, as if confused. Thalia helped Mrs. Zhang up, and Nico's legs were wobbly.

"Suck it up Zombie Boy, I've been here for months longer than you." Thalia told him offering him her other arm. "Come on everyone, let's go, we're out of here."

Thalia's weapons had appeared on her the second she'd left the cage- the bow and quiver swung over her shoulder, and the hunting knife at her waist. Nico had a long Scythian iron sword at his side. Jedediah's gladus reappeared at his waist, and he was wearing his armour. Quinn's heart did a little flip.

"Matthew, can I have my bracelet back?" Quinn asked. He took it off and Quinn checked the map. Her heart sunk to her stomach and her stomach sunk to her toes. Ten minutes left before the Newborn giant rose. They had to get out of here fast.

"Okay, look, listen," Quinn said counting everyone present. Mitchell, Nico, Thalia, Mrs. Zhang, Grover, Matthew, Jedediah- everyone was accounted for except for Sammy Valdez, but Quinn doubted she could do anything for him. Besides, the dead were low on her priority list.

"We have five minutes to get out of here, and I have a way to teleport. Pair up," she said. "I'll take Matthew and Mrs. Zhang first, I'll leave you at Olympus where things should be safe for a little longer, and then I'll bring the rest of you to various battlefields. Thalia, where are the hunters?"

"I don't know," she said. "I got abducted last December."

Quinn checked her map and found a spot of silver.

"Okay, they're with the main concentration of Amazons."

"Oh, joy," Thalia muttered. "_Them. _Is that Hylla still queen?_" _

Quinn wasn't in the mood to sort out troubles between female warrior groups, and she turned towards Nico. "You tried to close the doors of death. What did you find?"

"They're not fully open yet," Nico said. "And by 'they' I mean the main entrances around the world- Orpheus' door, the main one where Charon operates, and Melinoe's passage, the major temple of Hades in Ancient Greece… They might not stay that way for much longer, but for now it's just Gaia's propping them open."

"So you'd have to kill Gaia so the doors close," Mitchell said.

"That's not my fight," Quinn said putting her bracelet on. "Matt, come here sweetheart. Mrs. Zhang, if you please."

They both latched on to an arm.

"Stay put," Quinn told the others. "I'll be back." She put her hand to the gem on her wrist and _poof _she was gone, and in New York, in front of the Empire State Building. Part of her was disappointed to see that it was simply sandwiched between two buildings. She'd expected such a great building –a building so great the gods had anchored Olympus to it- to stand alone and tall and proud. Well, it was New York after all, she reminded herself.

"Hide there," Quinn said. "Don't come out, don't go up, stay in the lobby."

Mrs. Zhang nodded and promised to keep Matthew safe. She pinched Quinn's cheek.

"You're a strong one." She said.

Quinn blushed, and didn't say anything. She just waved goodbye and disappeared.

She found places who were struggling to send Nico and Grover to go to, located Mitchell's cabin, pinpointed the hunters of Artemis for Thalia to take charge of (a cheer went up from the crowd of silver once Quinn arrived and someone had tried to tell her to join).

She deposited Jedediah with the Third Cohort and he immediately picked a sword up from a dead soldier with a face so mutilated it couldn't be recognised. He grabbed her hand.

"You aren't staying?" He asked.

She nearly couldn't speak again.

"No. They need me in Greece. Besides, I won't fight with the Fourth Cohort. Not after what they've…" she nearly talked about Cate, but he didn't need to hear that right now. He was so strong, plunging into battle after a month of captivity. "I refuse."

Jedediah looked at her.

"You're a keeper Quinn Hunter," he said. "I owe you my life and… and so much more."

Quinn nodded. She couldn't say anything. Her voice had deserted her.

"I'll be back. It's not over." She promised. "Fight hard."

He nodded and someone spotted him and called him up.

She put her hand on her bracelet and appeared at Minerva's side. The goddess had a spear down a rather smallish giant's back and he was screaming. How she'd gotten there, Quinn would have paid to know.

Quinn threw her second bomb and Minerva raised a hand to have it float to the giant's face as she jumped off, and landed like a cat. His scream was hidden by the explosion and Quinn hit the deck as the giant fell.

Minerva came closer and Quinn wasn't sure if she should kneel or run or hide. She'd never met her mother in the flesh before; only in dreams. Jupiter had explained it to her in Troy; her course with the voices was just too bumpy for a goddess to come close.

She was a beautiful woman with blonde hair pinned tightly to the back of her head, wearing a breast plate and a long white dress. A spear was strapped to her back, a sword to her side, and her shield spiralled in and out of a bracelet form. Her eyes were brighter than any she'd ever seen, even Annabeth's. They sparkled and scared at the same time. She was a truly beautiful woman, which Quinn hadn't expected-

_It's not like just because you aren't eye candy that your genetic providers can't be._

-but it made sense. Knowledge, intelligence, wisdom and power was beautiful.

Minerva motioned for Quinn to spin around to examine her shoulder. With a soothing hand, Quinn was healed. The goddess kissed her hair.

"You defeated Arachne and saved innocent people as well as important demigods from the earth's lair," she said softly. "Thank you."

Quinn took a deep breath to keep herself steady.

"Mother, the new giant, Asykas, is going to rise anytime." She said.

"The son of Victoria will bring us there when the moment is right," Minerva said. She waved her hand and a canteen of water appeared.

"It's diluted with nectar," she said handing it to Quinn. "You're exhausted, Quintina."

There was no arguing with that. Quinn drank. It tasted like apple cider and spices, and then it tasted like the hot chocolate that her grandmother always had waiting for her when she got back from school in the winter, like summer's lemonade and melted Freezies. A whole season of flavours from home.

She'd drained the canteen before she knew it, and she felt immensely better.

And then the right moment apparently came, because Quinn and Minerva were standing in a new place where the earth was shaking and a bulge appeared from the ground. Pairs of half-bloods and gods appeared, circling the bulge.

Frank flashed from a dragon to a man for a second and Quinn saw how bloody his leg was and she knew that it wasn't good. He turned back into an eagle, circling above Mars.

The three children of the Big Three were separated, covered in dust and exhausted looking. Hazel looked out of it completely. Jason's short hair was sticking up straight with electricity. Percy's face was pale and his shoulders were slumped- but it didn't look like an effect of fatigue but more of mentality.

Josie's bow was drawn- she'd decided to resort to an actual weapon after all.

Leo was on fire. He looked fidgety.

Tommy was standing next to a woman with a long, dark braid woven from the top of her head and over her shoulder. Her eyes were the same shade of brown as his and she was as tanned and burned by the sun and wind as he was. She was slenderer, and had two wings of interlocked bronze feathers growing from her back which made for a remarkable difference.

Some gods stood alone, without their children.

The earth cracked and debris flew.

"Hold your lines!" A familiar voice, Jupiter, called out.

Quinn positioned herself for a fight.

She tallied everyone they had. Nine half-bloods, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, Apollo, Mars, Venus, Minerva, Victoria, Juno, Ceres, Mercury, Bellona, and Vulcan. Twenty two warriors, total.

The dust cleared and Quinn saw something enormous wrapped in what looked like latex. The material cracked and fell, like an eggshell that a chick had cracked through. The thing inside shook it off and showed itself to the gods and heroes.

He was taller than Enceladus, and his shoulders were square. His skin was blood red, and his hair fell in night black dreadlocks down his back. His eyes were too big from his face, human and glowing amber. He was bare-chested, wearing only black trousers. The giant had ink black tattoos and Quinn realised that they were the symbols of the gods- thunderbolt, trident, caduceus, dove, hammer, lyre… All were connected like some sick pentagram. His feet had snakes on the end, like pointed medieval shoes. Their tongues slithered and hissed and Quinn thought they looked poisonous.

Asykas looked around and laughed. As he laughed his arms turned into crackling lightning bolts, and his eyes flashed from cat eyes, to a bug's eyes, and then to beady fish eyes.

He looked down at the gods.

"It seems that I have an audience," he said. "For the end of the world."

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS <strong>

Guest- Ha, ha, it's like you want me to die!

percaveth4forever- but Frank can't be too protective, right? He needs to let her live and spread her wings and fight her own battles.

Guest- Speaking of things, y wuld u spl lik dat 2?

selenagomez5802- Rick Riordan doesn't do 'too cliffy' he just does DIE HEARTS OF READERS DIE

EditorGirl- Yeah, it's not out yet. I don't know.

Patrick- Okay thanks, I'll try!

annabeth532- I hope you had a nice vacation!

IzzyBooklover98- THANK YOU!

Reyna xxx - :O NOWAY

thunderbolt- Hi! Thank you for your kind review, but I don't think I'll be writing a HoH. Like, _really _not.

Guest- Hi! Dawwwww- thanks! My favourites are Hecate and Hephaestus though I don't know, Mars is badass. I think I'd rather be Roman because I've always wanted to be fit. Also being in an ancient Roman fort would make me fangirl so much my life would be amazing.

Rinboard- Nope, you've got more important things to be informed about.

Caitlin- THANK YOU!

Anonymous- Hi! I don't post on tumblr less, I created my fanfiction account only when I was thirteen but who am I to tell you how to run your life, also 10 Days of Percabeth is still work in progress.

Ksdfgvjhdfgjvkhd- I'm glad you liked it!

EditorGirl- Oh yes, I'm a big character killer. My story 'Terminal'? My best friends haven't forgiven me for that death yet. I'm also expecting one death in the next chapter and you see whoever survives die in the epilogue. YAY! More Tommy PoV? Mmmm- I don't think so, but he will be important. Like, _really _important.


	104. X Jason, Leo

**Hey everyone! Quick thing I need to tell you all before you get the chapter (ON TIME THIS WEEK! YAY!)**

**I signed up for NaNoWriMo back when I thought that I'd finish the story before November. But of course since then I got sick, lost track of the story, and a few things like that so I'm juggling both finishing this and writing 50, 000 words in a month. Please patience? You'll still get a chapter every week- or a huge truckload of content the next week. I'll do my best, but I'll stop answering reviews and PM'S as much (assume I'm eternally thankful for the support you're giving me because I am), and I won't be producing oneshots a lot. Just a warning.**

**Also happy Movember to those participating or whose fathers are participating. All of my teachers are smooth as a baby's behind since yesterday and it's weird.**

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><p>XI<p>

Jason

Half of Jason was wondering why his life wasn't flashing in front of his eyes right that moment.

Ten seconds earlier he'd felt like breaking out into song and finding a way to declare a civic holiday because somehow, all of the crew was still alive and intact. He may not lead them like he led Camp Jupiter, like he thought he might when Juno had explained the idea of the quest and the boat to him, but these people had become a family. They'd become each other's family as a default because they'd been either kicked out of their home, were a thousand miles from it, or needed a new one.

And Jason was very, very protective.

Especially of the ones he loved.

Especially of his family.

But Asykas was big- nearly as big as Porphyrion, which he and Jupiter had put away a few seconds prior to being brought here, and they'd done so in a sick, fast-paced, mind blowing fight that Jason couldn't recall if he tried because things had been too fast too rash too primitive. He just knew it hadn't been pretty.

He looked at the crew of the Argo II once again. Apart from a flicker of Frank's injured leg, they all looked okay spare for fatigue. He wondered how long that'd be.

The first thing to move after that was a volley of arrows shot straight at Asykas' neck. He didn't even react, though they were planted right where an artery should go.

"Actually, we're here for the weather." Josie called up.

Asykas tried to take a step towards she and Apollo and Poseidon and Percy immediately reacted. They were near a stream and all of the water in there rose up and carried the two to the giant's back where a glowing trident and a bronze Xiphos were planted into his back. It splashed down to the ground after, and they clung to his hair, swinging sword and trident leaving the giant to shake his head as if he were a wet dog and making Percy swear and Poseidon yell at him to stay strong.

Frank and Mars leapt into battle. Frank flew up as a dragon, using his claws like maces and his tail as a whip, and Mars managed to grow in size and float in an avatar only a few feet shorter than Asykas.

Jupiter and Jason didn't wait a second longer before flying up into the air, riding the winds and calling up lightning. They didn't even have to look at each other to know to go. Storm clouds gathered and the air smelled like ozone as static crackled overhead.

"LEO!" Frank yelled turning into a human for a second, clinging onto Asykas' hair. "GO!"

"I can't leave!" The son of Hephaestus yelled. "You're my first family since… since a long time!"

"Find Khione!" Frank said. It didn't make any sense to Jason, but Leo obviously knew what Frank meant and that was what mattered.

"You have to!" Hazel shouted. Jason doubted she knew what was going on, but the girl trusted Frank to no ends.

So Leo looked at them longfully for a minute and Jason knew where he was coming from. The people on that ship were the single largest group of people to ever welcome him, make him feel safe and trusting and okay. Even if this giant was terrifying, leaving didn't feel right. It felt like abandonment, and if there was one thing Leo hated it was abandonment.

Jason knew him well enough.

"Leo, do the right thing," Piper said, her voice melodious. Aphrodite was waiting before charging for the effects to take place- though Jason had to look twice because for a second she looked more like Reyna than Bellona had. With less scars. Some goddess of beauty that was.

The words did Leo in and he put his hand to his bracelet and disappeared.

Hephaestus would have to fight with his automatons alone, and that was probably for the best.

Jason raised his hand towards the sky and hurled an imaginary dodge ball to the giant. A bolt of lightning shot right through and hit the giant on the head. It contacted with one of Percy's waves, and electricity crackled all around. The giant was drenched and he yelled as electricity crackled all along its body.

Then it shot lightning back, and nearly took out someone's chariot.

Asykas' laughter was big and hearty and deep and terrifying.

"And here I was thinking you knew what I was made out of," Asykas said.

Thalia, Jason realised. The giant had Thalia's powers. Hopefully not as an immortal maiden, but it was still pretty back that it could shoot back lightning.

_We must strip it of its powers. It is too uncontrollable if we don't. We will get picked off one by one. _The voice was strict and in command; Minerva, obviously.

Somehow Jason got into the gods' battle routine. Minerva made the plans and passed them around, everyone else added their input, Jupiter gave the final orders- and this all happened telepathically. Jason could tell that this crept out most of the half-bloods, and that Quinn had a lot of trouble following. He wondered what the voices were telling her now, and how much of it was true.

Asykas tapped his heels to the ground and crack appeared in the earth. Out came rows and rows of grey soldiers with pale skins, missing limbs and torn uniforms. They were dead.

Thankfully the doors of death were still open and Pluto was powerful enough to overpower them, so they went scrambling instead.

One power down. Six more to tranquilise.

But it scared Jason how _well _Asykas managed to do it. He wasn't mimicking the power he had been given at birth; he had them in his blood just like Nico di Angelo would.

Frank managed to yank Asykas' eye out of its socket with his good dragon talon. He dropped it, and Piper nearly got squashed. That was when Jason realised that she was singing. Jason didn't know the song, probably a random tune she'd heard on the radio, but just her voice made him want to keep fighting.

Asykas clamped his hand to his face and the gods didn't waste any time attacking. Most of them concentrated their forces to a spot on his left side. The giant winced and for a while things looked hopeful.

Then he bellowed and turned into a dragon himself. And it was a _big _dragon- the biggest thing anyone had ever been aware of. It wasn't pretty.

Power Number Three was showing, and everyone immediately started to run. Where were they running?

It sure as hell didn't matter.

Leo

"Marco!" He yelled. No snow goddess replied 'Polo'. For a second Leo was scared that he and Frank had been tricked and that the goddess wouldn't show up. He started panicking, his mind not sure if Frank had been played or not. Leo was torn between the idea that Frank had been so much tougher and more confident in that second where he'd spoken to Khione than any other time in his life, and the fact that Khione was an idiot.

Whatever. Bratty Snow queen helper-buddy or not, he had to find Gaia.

He started walking around the twisting Lair. It was like a labyrinth- he wished that he had Quinn with him. She'd been running around doing whatever; she had a clue of what was going on. If not she was smart enough to figure it out.

His heart tightened and fear bubbled in Leo's stomach. He'd left Quinn and the rest of them to fight Asykas without him. He was a fire guy. Surely that could be useful in their given situation.

Maybe Leo should have stayed. Maybe for once in his life Leo shouldn't have run away. He always gave himself reasons to run- the way the foster parents look at me isn't right, I'm too much trouble, I have to get away from the workshop, these kids are jerks, this school is too preppy… what told him that Gaia wasn't just another reason he made up in his head? Truth was, he'd been terrified up there. But he'd also been with people he found he could stand with. He should have stayed with them. Those kinds of people were gems that weren't often found, and he knew it better than anyone. What if they died? What if Leo lost them? What if the world lost them?

"There you are!" A voice called. The whole passage burst into flames as Leo nearly peed his pants, and Khione screamed. Leo cooled it.

"There are _way _more polite ways to let a guy hunting down the gods' biggest enemy know that you're coming to talk to him than scaring the living hell out of said guy." Leo notified her.

The goddess brushed ashes off her white dress. She was no longer wearing the grass sash that identified her as a servant of Gaia's. He found her fashion situation hopeful.

"I'll inform you that no hell is living."

"Well I don't know, been to the surface recently?" Leo asked.

He felt a bit bitter as he talked. Khione had been right there when Asykas had been born. She could have done a million things to stop it. Like the gods could have stopped everything. Like the gods could've put out Gaia's fire, stopped that Afghan sniper's bullet midair, reasoned with a bitter fortune teller, let an actress keep her son with her… The fact was that the gods were self-centered, and right now Leo was being asked to be more selfless than he'd ever been. He'd just learned to stay put; and now he was being told to run towards something else.

He felt light-headed, as if he was dehydrated. Or sick. Or both.

"I'd like to remind you that Gaia's influence is stronger here," Khione said. "Stronger than you've ever felt it- even at that workshop."

"_That _workshop?" Leo asked huffing. He stopped walking. 'That workshop'? 'That' workshop? '_That _workshop'? _That workshop?_

"The one where your mother died," Khione said without looking at him. '_That _workshop'? "She's part of this labyrinth and she powers it's…"

_That workshop._

Leo's eyes lit up with flames.

He didn't care if it was to storm or to fire and that the storm wasn't him.

_That workshop._

No.

As if that place didn't matter.

No.

As if the fact Esperanza Valdez had died in there was just a side detail.

No.

He raised his hands.

_That workshop._

Fire shot from his palms towards the snow goddess before Leo could register what his body was doing.

Jason

He'd become very familiar with both of his cousins' swearing habits during the last two hours of fighting. And it turned out that Poseidon and Pluto had the same manners. (Whoever had come up with 'cursed like a sailor' wasn't kidding and had obviously met the sea god).

And Jason knew because the three of them were hanging off Asykas' dragon wing along with Josie Esposito. Jason had no idea how that had really happened but all he knew was that he would have to move. The air around them was full of lightning that Jason _knew _nor he nor his uncles and especially not Josie could survive.

He tried to make a list of what was going on in his head.

Asykas had turned into a dragon and obviously had his own idea of where to take them.

A few of the gods had been thrown the opposite direction and weren't close and didn't look like they were coming back anytime soon. Immortals didn't take as good care of themselves in fights as demigods did because their stakes weren't as high.

If he looked up he'd see Minerva, Victoria, Juno, Jupiter and Mercury flying above the dragon and doing their best to keep up. Most of the demigods were in the back, not physically able to keep up. Jason and Josie had grabbed on and somehow held on, and there was also Frank who was hovering as a smaller and less scary dragon above. Every now and then Hazel would pop out of the ground in the distance, thanks to her tunnels. Jason wanted to tell her to stop and save her energy because he and Percy had both agreed that the only thing keeping her alive was that the doors of death were open.

If he looked down he saw Vulcan and his army of high-performance automatons and Mars wreaking havoc.

And then there was him the idiot, Josie, and the two gods holding on and not sure what to do. Let one hand go to use a weapon and they fell into a storm of lightning that had even hurt _Jupiter. _

"JASON!" Josie yelled.

Jason turned his head to see her. She had a quiver full of arrows on her back, not that that was of any use.

"I see it!" She said.

"See what?" Jason yelled back, to be heard over the elements raging around them, the wind beating past them and the rest of the joy. Where was Asykas trying to bring the battle to?

Nearly as soon as he said it Jason knew what she meant. She wasn't seeing with her eyes; she was seeing with her mind.

"I'm over an Achilles heel!" She said. "Logic! It's like Frank's stick! Percy's back, Quinn's voices led her to Gaia- that's why heroes have _hamartias! _Fatal flaws! This is his!"

Josie wasn't making much sense.

"Stab him then!" Jason said.

"With what? My teeth? No thanks!" Josie yelled.

Out of nowhere Aphrodite came back into play as a giant dove holding Piper in her feet. Her daughter drew a giant gash in the dragon's side and with a thunderous boom he fell back to the ground.

Jason sprawled his arms and he and Josie were caught by an air mattress and lowered gently to the ground as opposed to being smashed to pancakes by the impact. Asykas was already up again. Hazel popped out of the ground and she had Tommy and Percy with her.

Piper had jumped from the eagle and in a perfect eagle-landing she turned the impact into a somersault and moved away to safety. She was nearly under Asykas' foot and in a desperate attempt to stay alive she stabbed Katoptris upwards, rolled and ran like hell. Hazel kicked the ground and the dessert ground they stood over lured Piper to safety as if it were a carpet pulled under her feet.

"IMPERTENT CHILD OF APHRODITE!" Asykas yelled. Blood ran down his stomach where Piper had stuck her blade. Lightning bolts hit the ground and the force projected everyone backwards, leaving Piper alone, exiled in a private ring with the giant.

"I tried to be civil, but primitive is something I can do."

Asykas reached down to grab Piper, his mouth wide open. His teeth became sharp as a sabre-toothed tiger. The part of Jason that had protected Piper and Leo during their quest- that tried to protect everyone during this quest- flared up and panicked and knew what would happen.

But someone beat him to whatever help he might have brought, yelling 'NO' so loudly Jason heard it above all the thunder and the lightning and the earth going wild.

Piper was pushed from the ring and she fell backwards, hitting her head pretty badly against a rock and landing on her shoulder badly.

Jason ran to help her but he hadn't missed what had happened.

Tommy had pushed her out of the lightning ring and to safety.

And it was he who the giant brought to his mouth and dropped inside.

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS<strong>

goodjob- Well thank you!

Guest- It's one of those times when they're female.

anonymous- About Tumblr? Oh, it's a great place! Fabulous content, good people, interesting points of views left and right, lots of laughs, theories, news... But once you sign up you never leave. Ever.

SonofRome- Are you psychic or something? Anyways, there's your Tommy and Piper :P Also I'll put it on my list, but maybe not this month.

Reyna xx- AWW THANK YOU!


	105. XI Jason, Leo, Percy, Frank,Piper, Josie

**Have a gorgeous weekend you guys! Here's your chapter, I hope you enjoy. My NaNoWriMo word count right now is 28, 546 words right now so I'm planning really hard on finishing the chapter of Hunting Stories I'm stuck on. I got to see Beauty and the Beast Broadway the other day, so I'm all inspired now. **

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><p>XII<p>

Jason

He'd heard Piper scream before. He'd heard many people scream before- battle cries, anger, pain, fear, rage, victory.

But he'd never heard anybody scream like Piper screamed when the giant looked in their direction again and Tommy wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"TOM!" She yelled. It was so desperate Jason had to remember what had been told about the Symposium. How out of all the pairs separated in the old days, only Piper and Tommy's souls had been the ones who found each other time after time, regeneration after regeneration, and if they didn't find each other in time it was like they ran out of air.

He believed it now. He'd been trying to help Piper figure it out herself, and he'd spent hours on end listening to her ramble, trying to shift through the facts and the fiction. The idea had never quite made sense to him. Two souls always together? Rubbish.

But he believed it now.

He ran to her and picked her off the ground to get her away from the action for a while. She clung to his sleeve, unable to stand on her own, knees wobbling as if she was physically sick and not just in shock.

"Tommy did that so you wouldn't get hurt, Piper." Jason said. "Don't you stop fighting and get _killed." _

Piper's eyes were burning and she was shaking like a leaf. She'd become tough through training but Jason had never been afraid of her until then.

"Piper, talk to me, blink, _something." _Jason said. That's when he realised that he wasn't holding Piper _up, _he was holding her _back- _which seemed even more important right then.

"Let me go! Don't touch me! Let me go Jason!" She screamed at him.

"Piper, calm down first. I can't let you do that." He said.

"If you really cared about me you'd let me at him! I'll kill him!" She screamed. "I'll kill him!"

Too many emotions were piercing her screams for Jason to let her go, and suddenly Piper turned on him. She slipped from his grasp, grabbed his wrist, kicked his legs out from under him and judo-flipped him. She reached for the ring around her neck, snapped off the chain, put it on her ring finger, and disappeared before Jason could even get up. He knew that Piper had become stronger and that she had the element of surprise on her side; but where in Olympus and Rome did _that _come from?

He cussed. Where did she go?

He couldn't worry for long because Percy tackled him out of the way of Asykas' foot.

"Where's Piper?" Percy yelled. He looked furious- face red, jaw locked, flames in his eyes.

"She's invisible how would I know?" Jason asked.

Percy cussed a string that impressed Jason and they looked around- which was rather stupid of them, but it was an instinct.

That's when the giant fell right on its front, squashing three gods and Hazel.

"HAZEL!" Nearby Josie yelled. The daughter of Pluto had thankfully escaped into a tunnel and was safe and sound near Quinn, who was holding up better than Jason would have ever thought she would.

That's when the light popped up near the giant's throat. Jason soon realised that it was the sun shining off a blade because the giant's throat seemed to rip itself open and spill blood everywhere.

It was probably Katoptris which mean that the giant had been taken down by… Piper?

Jason knew it was her, but he didn't understand how. All these people he thought he'd known well were suddenly all different- Percy was depressed, Quinn was holding up like Wonder Woman, Josie was cooperating with everyone, Frank's leadership seemed to flourish, Piper was just insanely more powerful now… He guessed that war changed people an awful lot.

Hazel dug her hands into the earth, huge earthen hands growing from the earth and grabbing one of Asykas' ankles and twisting them like doorknobs. Percy sucked all the humidity out of the air and sent boiling water on Asykas' face. Jason took off and sent electricity sailing through the air on a gust of wind.

The giant got up. Blood trickled down the giant's chest but he acted like it was a paper cut.

Mars' ten-foot-tall avatar swung his fist and made contact with the giant, sending him stumbling back. Waves and rocks and lightning grew up the giants' legs like a cast of elements, the product of Saturn's three sons working together.

Asykas turned into a giant eagle, knocked a few chariots out of the air as his wings spread, forced Jason to land as to avoid death. He was higher than the cruising altitude of a Boeing 737 when he reappeared as a giant, dropped to the ground and smashing the casts as he landed on them.

Quinn threw a bomb and the giant's neck and back was seared- but Asykas obviously hadn't felt a thing. But he was limping on one ankle- so good on Hazel.

The giant roared and snatched dragon-Frank out of thin air and threw him against the ground. Frank turned back into a guy- a battered up, hurt, bleeding and nearly amputated guy.

Hazel screamed his name.

Juno hit Asykas with a wall of purple energy- the colour of her people.

It didn't do anything.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" The giant yelled. "WHERE ARE YOU CHILD OF LOVE? I WILL KILL YOU!"

That's when Percy changed everything too.

He hopped onto Mercury's abandoned chariot and snapped the horse's reins. The holographic-looking horses flew up into the air and the other gods had to race out of place because it was very clear that the son of Poseidon would not steer and would not stop. Percy climbed on the edge of the chariot and jumped off.

Jason took off the ground immediately ready to perform some serious life-saving.

"Gaia will _not _tear apart two people!" Percy yelled. "NOT AGAIN!"

Riptide imbedded itself in the giant's face and Percy just held on tight as gravity pulled the blade down. When he hit the side of the face and fell, Jason raced up and caught him before he hit the giant's shoulder.

"Aww, did the son of Poseidon's feelings get hurt?" Asykas taunted. Percy thrashed like a demon and nearly knocked Jason and himself out of the air. They definitely dropped a few feet.

"GUYS!" Hazel yelled up at them. Jason understood what she wanted because they'd done it once before and so he got Percy's attention.

Hazel kicked the ground and two rocks flew out of the air. Jason willed the winds to bring it up, and with a wide arm movement that nearly threw them both off balance Percy sucked the water straight out of the rock, crumbling it to dust in front of them. The newfound water rushed to Asykas' face and blinded the giant.

The three elder gods were pounding on Asykas' back, the vertebras of the beast's spines protruding even more. Mars took a swing. Minerva picked a strategic location on Asykas' body to stab and got a loud scream as she applied force to the pressure point. Victoria was hovering around his face like a bee, swinging her sword like a dart and Venus was imitating her. Apollo and Vulcan were at its feet, Vulcan with his automatons and Apollo feeding little flames and fires that Vulcan created. The smell of burned tires soon spread through the air.

The giant was a bloodied mess. Cuts were everywhere. There was no way he should still be standing and fighting- let alone breathing. Something was keeping him alive.

Leo

Next thing he knew he was standing in a room black as ashes. He coughed and sat up feeling sore- as if he'd just woken up the day after one of Coach Hedge's boot camp classes. His head felt fuzzy, as if he'd missed something.

When he looked around he saw a grey figure lying in the corner. That's when he realised that it was actually a white figure, just covered in the same ashes as the room.

"Khione!" Leo called. He ran to the goddess. "Khione, Khione, what happened?" He asked shaking her. The goddess coughed and pulled away.

"_You _happened," she said. "Gaia got to you, demigod. You got upset for one little thing and she used that moment for her spirit to invade your weak mind and now… now she knows where we are, what we want to do, and that I am now on your side."

"Oh stop complaining, she'd have figured it out eventually." Leo said. "Like; when you'd have popped up with me next to you, and my head wouldn't be on a silver platter."

He felt horrible inside. If Khione hadn't have been immortal, she would have had the same fate as Mom.

"You need to protect yourself- especially if I'm going to take you any closer to Gaia." Khione said sternly. "What's your plan?"

"Plan for what?" Leo asked. "You may have missed the memo, but I don't _do _plans."

"For keeping yourself safe," Khione said. "You need protection."

"Well you're magic. Gimme."

"I'm the goddess of _snow. _Snow doesn't exactly go that way." Khione said crossing her arms.

"Some use you are."

"I am still a goddess Leo Valdez don't you dare-"

"Are you? Won't you get disowned or something? Or is it di_snowed _in your case?"

Khione's eyes burned.

"Ah-ah-ah," Leo said. "I'm still one of the seven. Don't you dare kill me now."

Leo thought. Protection. When was the last time he'd felt protected anyways? Inside camp borders, probably. Not at Camp Jupiter. Never before that. Definitely not in any foster home.

It was with Mom.

The last time Leo had felt very, very safe was when the world was nice and full of sunshine. Before monsters, before fire, before quests and lost heroes and sons of Neptune. With Mom.

The last protector he had had was Festus, the strong bronze dragon who liked Leo after he just went through years of nobody liking him and a semester of whoa-did-my-life-just-happen-or-what's-going-on.

His palms tingled. Usually Leo would've been tempted to force them shut and numb, pushing a snooze button on a bomb that would inevitably go off, but he was feeling down as he recalled every single moment he could remember with Mom and then with Festus and he wondered what she'd have thought about Festus and how sure he was that Festus would've loved Mom.

Some kind of instinct, Leo was still getting the hang of those, took over him and he raised his hand.

He opened it and flames sprouted out except not in columns or crackling heaps. The shapes were very familiar. A dragon with a long tail and a huge wingspan, a woman with curly hair up to her shoulders, a St-Bernard like the one his best friend as a kid had owned, a centaur…

Leo's fiery buddies gathered around him, the flames making him warm and cozy as if he were home.

"That," Leo said stuttering. "That's my plan."

Percy

He was about as damn mad as he got.

First; the war with Gaia broke he and Annabeth up. He was sure that it was somehow his fault too, and maybe hers, but if Gaia hadn't decided to wake up and stir up trouble for the same generation that had survives the Titans, he was certain that they'd have lasted longer. Been happier. Laughed more often. Held each other tighter. Shared more. Maybe saved their relationship.

It didn't matter what he thought, she was dead now. That was also Gaia's fault.

And then _Tommy _died doing exactly what Percy should have done. Saving a life (he didn't want to add the last part: but saving the life of someone he loved).

He'd never get Piper's screaming out of his ears.

So Gaia had broken up another couple. People who could have lasted longer, been happier, laughed more often, held each other tighter, shared more…

Percy was taking it as personally as if he was Piper's fairy godmother.

Frank

Frank wasn't exactly conscient and not exactly aware of what was going on around him because a) blood loss, b) fatigue and c) being thrown to the ground from twenty stories high by a giant.

But he did feel everything-somewhat. He knew that he was lying on something tucked into his jeans' pocket.

Leo's little statue of Hazel- the one he wanted to take her place in the Underworld. Crazy, crazy Valdez.

He was too dizzy to really think it through but he honestly hoped that by the time he woke up if he ever did, she'd be there. He also dared to hope that there'd be more of her left in the world than that little statue because the world needed more of Hazel than that.

He needed more of Hazel than that.

Of course that might not matter because even his unconscient thoughts were slipping away, but he wished it did. He wished that it mattered because he was sure that it'd matter to Hazel that she had been loved in her life and loved very dearly even if it was just plain and boring old him. He wished that even if it didn't matter she'd know because come to think about it, maybe he'd never said it straight out and out loud with an outside voice. He wanted anyone to know.

_It does matter, _a sweet woman's voice that reminded him an awful lot of Piper's voice when she was layering on the charmspeak and the charms said. It was more powerful than Piper, almost like her… _And I know._

Frank lost it as though that had been the only thing he'd been conscious for.

Piper

Damn the consequences.

Damn them all.

She didn't care what Jason thought or what advice he gave.

She just had to get close to the giant, the thing that took Tommy away, with something very sharp and do as much damage as she could before it killed her too.

She swung Katoptris like a baseball bat, making as much contact as she could. Every scarlet drop that poured from Asykas was like a drop of fuel inside of Piper, energising her to get more, and she got very destructive very fast. She could barely recognise the faces and voices of gods and heroes. All she knew was that she was angry.

Because it was easy to be angry but very, very difficult to be as sad and broken as she was then.

Josie

Panting, she stopped moving and fighting for a second. Her bow was in her hand. The string was a lot looser than it had been that morning and her quiver was very much lighter.

She watched them run around and fight their fight with the desperation of someone who didn't know what was going to happen and who couldn't tell what their chances were. Josie smiled. She'd been doing exactly that only a few seconds ago. She had sunken down to that level. She'd become one of them.

See, her whole life she'd heard people talking about how they'd been given their lives for a reason. Josie felt like she'd been given a life but she couldn't actually participate in it because she knew exactly what was going to happen. What was the fun in doing something with a defined outcome, where possibilities and excitement weren't in play? But this time, for once in her life since Hugo, people had gotten her involved, and talked to her as if she were a person with ideas and knowledge and abilities, and comforted her, and tried to understand her. And for the first time she wanted to be part of something too- even if they were all too serious and they all worried too much and they were all rather silly.

Her breath still hadn't caught up as she watched the giant's leg buckle out from under him. The ankle Hazel had twisted, Piper's rage and periodic bloodlust, and Jason's excellent timing had all coordinated that way.

She recognised the scene, it was one of many she'd seen happen before, when she was a little girl. In her dreams, when she was lost in thought, letters on a page or lines of a drawing rearranging themselves to write or draw down fate.

She knew she'd have to pick her moment wisely and very immediately…

Now.


	106. XII Jason, Leo, Quinn

**Hi guys! Hope your weeks were just as gorgeous as you are.**

**Sorry the chapter is posted late, I just... I'm nervous about it, it's huge, it's big, I want all the feedback you can come up with because I'm really nervous!**

**My NaNoWriMo word count is 41339 so that's beautiful. I had the day of bring-back-this-projet-now-do-an-oral-presentation-and-here-have-a-math-test yesterday so that was hectic. I also FINALLY got Emily Zhang a character slot on the site! YAY! **

**Have a nice week and enjoy the chapter guys!**

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><p>XII<p>

Leo

So he and Khione found Gaia soon enough thanks to the fact that she was a wishy-washy traitor who knew where everything was.

Khione pulled Leo out of the room.

"This will be the most difficult thing you will ever do in your life." She said.

"Yeah I know, bring it."

Khione frowned. He was taking this too calmly for her liking, and maybe even comprehension. But the thing was, Leo had daydreamed and dreamed about this moment since he'd found out who his mom's real killer was. He'd dreamed of righting his wrong and getting revenge on her behalf and making sure that nobody else lost anyone like that.

If he wasn't ready now he never would be.

The fiery dragon came to cuddle with Leo and he petted its snout.

"Now if we could just-"

"Show your faces, you little backstabbing vixen. And of course you too Leo, my dear." A voice said.

Gaia was behind them.

Jason

He was counting his people and panicking internally.

Annabeth hadn't even made it to the fight, and Leo had been sent down under for some reason, Jason could only trust Frank, Hazel and Leo on that.

Tommy was down, which just threw everyone into a gawking state of nonbelief and denial.

Frank was down. Jason knew that that had thrown the crew into panic –Hazel in particular. But he'd want them to keep fighting and the best way Jason could do that was to clear his head and forget about it, try to chase the image of Frank broken and hurt and lying still out of his mind.

Piper was fighting harder than some of the gods were; a kind of white glow was surrounding her.

Percy was going to burn himself out, Jason didn't doubt it. Ditto Hazel, and probably Jason. But his emotional state was slightly more stable. Anyways, they were up to the same antics they'd been exhausting themselves over and kicking butt with since morning.

Quinn had stopped fighting to try and drag Frank out of harm's way and see what she could do; which was good because she was so exhausted she'd get hurt herself. Jason took her out of his headcount for now, hoping that she'd manage to get far.

Then there was Josie, who had been shooting her arrows in impressive enough numbers for someone who'd never touched a bow before. Jason had never pegged her as a fighter, and he was still right about that. But the daughter of Apollo was doing her best, and her best was good enough to keep her alive- so as far as Jason was concerned it was excellent. But something about the way she'd behaved today… She'd told him about being understood, she'd told him about a friend from Spain, Hugo… That wasn't exactly in Josie's secretive nature.

The demigods: Five of them.

The gods: Athena, Victoria, Juno, Jupiter, Vulcan, Neptune and Mars. Seven of them.

Mercury had been thrown into a crater that would probably become a lake in the Greek scenery, and Pluto had disappeared. Jason imagined he'd been called back to the Underworld, or at least he hoped so because the alternatives weren't pretty. Vulcan was seriously injured, and Victoria's wings were bleeding, rendering the goddess to fight on foot.

But they had an actual thing going on now! A real organised strategy that was working!

Two gods had strings wrapped and tied around the giant's ankle that Hazel had broken, and five more struggled with the one that wasn't broken.

They were pulling and the idea was that the giant would fall, and the demigods would swarm it and try to kill it. If that made any sense.

Jason was trying to summon the winds and the earth was shaking- Percy and Hazel clutching each other's hands, eyes closed in concentration, jaws locked, feet spread out to give them a wide base.

Meanwhile Piper was raging. Quinn, having ripped off part of his shirt to cover Frank's leg as best as she could already, was holding her back so that she didn't blow it. Something about Piper wasn't right, like a crack in the universe.

Every single inch Quinn moved, she winced.

Josie was standing to the side, her bow lowered down. She watched the scene with her dark eyes, taking it all in as if it were a funeral. Jason wasn't sure if she was just tired –he didn't think Josie had ever participated in a fight- or if she was thinking of something.

Things were looking grim.

Leo

He had a heart attack and he wacked Khione as he jumped back. His hands lit on fire as he backed up from the earth goddess cautiously, into a wider area. Those were better to have fights in, so you didn't get pinned or blocked.

"_You can't possibly expect me not to notice a change in loyalties_," the humming, sleeping earth goddess said. She wore dirt robes as per usual, and her thick tangles hair was done in a messy brown braid. Her head was lulled to the side, eyes shut, voice sleepy. "_I am the earth. I notice everything." _

Leo coughed. She smelled like rotting compost and mud. The bad scents of the earth- no spices, or freshly cut grass, or fresh air.

"Aww gross, did you notice your breath Dirt Lady? Did you also notice the fact that you're going to _die?"_ Leo said.

The floor under Leo's feet slanted and Leo tumbled to the ground and rolled down. He nearly fell in the bath of white stuff Asykas had emerged from- something he knew he didn't want to do.

"_No young one, I only notice what is actually happening." _Gaia said. She was coming at him, and that was when Khione stroke.

She jumped out from where she was standing and threw her arms around Gaia, tackling the earth goddess to the ground. The floor turned so icy Leo felt it through his shoes and clothes, and frost started spreading on the ground like a white stain. Long tentacles of the stuff extended from the ground and wrapped around Gaia like ivy on a wall. Leo was about to shoot some fire but then he realised that he couldn't, lest he undo and destroy all of Khione's work.

This was going to be complex.

Khione got thrown off and the goddess of snow rolled down the ground. Leo tried to come up and the ground once again shifted under his feet, like a Mario Kart track, as Gaia got up.

Leo raised his arms over his head and squeezed his hands together. The biggest of the fiery figures came back- Festus.

"Get her Festus!" Leo said. Festus ploughed towards Gaia, and Leo rushed to help Khione get back to her feet.

Out of nowhere a stalactite popped from the ceiling and pierced fire-Festus, rendering the dragon to a wisp of smoke.

Gaia melted into the ground, and before Leo could even panic she came back upbehind him, grabbed him with hands like a potter, and threw Leo across the room. He hit his head against the wall and for a while black fuzzy spots took over Leo's vision.

When everything focused again he realised that he was pinned. Limestone handcuffs were formed around his wrists and ankles and they were getting tighter, and tighter… They cut through his skin and Leo felt his bones creaking. He yelled in pain. Gaia was over him.

"_Brave little demigod, you should learn the difference between brave and foolish."_

"If only you'd walk the talk and do your dirty work yourself instead of sending a baby giant to do it!" Leo called.

_"My 'baby giant' as you put it is currently entertaining five demigods and seven gods," _Gaia said. _"And when they are destroyed, he will destroy Mount Olympus, the original mountain. Unless, of course, he gets there while fighting the gods. It doesn't matter to me." _

Suddenly it started raining on Gaia, but the water turned to ice as it touched her skin, giving it a glassy look. Leo managed to summon another fire spirit, a centaur, and it charged Gaia. The goddess was thrown back against a wall by it, the ice shattering all around her.

Leo closed his eyes. How did he get out of the rock handcuffs? His tools were: fire and… well, that was it. He didn't have his tool belt, not even a screwdriver up his sleeve. Much less a bulldozer like back at the battle with Porphyrion, or an army of automatons like he'd had while he fought with his dad.

That's when ninth grade geography came back to him. Melted rock…

Melted rock made magma, so that's exactly what he did; he melted the rock and thanked the gods that he'd had a geography teacher who'd taught really well. He now had slimy fiery goop to fling at Gaia too- so bonus.

Khione's hands were twisting and curving like an apple tree's branches, wrapping Gaia in hoar frost. Leo put his hands out as if he was going to haul the sails of the Argo II. Maybe he could use fire to create more than animals and creatures. His mom had once told him that fire was a tool.

A lasso appeared between his fingers and Leo was quick to toss it around Gaia. He pulled the rope.

"No!" Khione said as her snow melted. But Leo was confident. He could do this. He could keep her under control, in his grasp. He pulled the rope and Gaia came closer. Leo looked up and back at the pool of white stuff. He got an idea.

"Khione," he said.

The goddess looked at Leo and he felt her eyes penetrate into his mind, reading it and figuring out his plans. He wasn't sure how to keep Gaia out, though: and that might be a problem. His centaur and the St-Bernard were making rounds, patrolling around the goddess, tapping a bow against its middle or growling.

She raised her hands and the rope lifted, and it stuck to the ceiling, pinned there by a block of ice. Leo pulled and as if there was a pulley system, he managed to lift Gaia up. Khione's skilled hands made the block keep up with him as he moved, until Gaia was about to be dangled above the white pool.

"You tried to push me into this, Dirt Lady." Leo said. "So obviously it's really bad to touch. Care to tell me what it is before I drop you."

"_No, as a matter of fact_." Gaia said. "_I rather show you myself_."

The earth under Leo shook and he lost his balance. Gaia broke free from his grip and suddenly Leo found himself hanging above the white pool, holding onto his fire rope for dear life.

Quinn

"Piper, no!" Quinn yelled, hooking her ankles with Piper's. "No, no, no, stay still!"

Piper fought against Quinn.

_Stopping her from saving the one she loves? Some friend you are. Well, we already knew that. _The voices said.

Quinn ignored them.

Piper had a white aura around her, and she was just stronger than she'd been at any other time. Quinn had a theory, that maybe all of Tommy's remaining energy, adrenaline and strength had leaked into her at his… well, at his death. She shouldn't hesitate on the word. Words were just words after all; it wasn't like they did anything. They didn't have any power once you learned to look at the truth, not the words.

They were things humans had invented to identify and label things humans had created and conceptualised and discovered, and humans were the most horrible lairs.

Leo

Khione raised her hands as if to destroy her piece of ice, the make-do pulley, but Gaia said "ah, ah, ah."

"_Do you really want to drop fire boy here?" _She asked.

Leo hoped not.

He tried to swing the rope around to move him around, and he nearly had the momentum for it. He was feeling quite like Tarzan when his rope got stuck and wrapped around a newly formed stalactite. The stalactite moved to Leo's horror, putting him back in his place.

Khione couldn't attack Gaia either, not as long as Leo was dangling. They were stuck.

He remembered the prophecy line. _To storm or to fire the world must fall. _

The 'or' made the difference in that moment. Neither one of them could fight right now, but if Leo let go… Well, maybe the world would fight to storm. Right now it was the best alternative.

And so Leo let go.

Quinn

Quinn had another theory.

She thought that maybe what was keeping the giant alive… well, it'd have to be something strong and hidden; something that was hard and maybe even impossible to kill.

Maybe it was Gaia herself. That was the safest tether Gaia could possibly give her child, especially if she only trusted herself like so many immortals did.

That meant that right now, the gods and the demigods were all just entertainers. They were keeping the giant away from Mount Olympus, cities that it could destroy, and populations it could kill. The real pressure was on Leo. What had always been said to him- how without him all the others' effort would mean nothing… well there you go.

Their defeating of the other giants wouldn't mean a thing if the one who could bring them back and the strongest of them all were still up and about.

He was the final piece of the puzzle.

Leo

So Leo had never gotten burned before.

But during his little soak in the bath of Asykas-juice (someone should be in charge of making sure he never uttered those words again) he felt it for the first time. Based on exactly what people had told him getting burned was like- it was hot, it stung, it felt as if you were going to lose a part of you, you wanted to make it stop more than anything.

Leo swore and splashed around like a baby in the bathtub, except he couldn't touch the bottom so he had to make sure not to drown. He tried to swim for the edges, but he couldn't move. He just treaded water despite the burning.

Khione had sprung into action and Leo could see her fighting, her arms waving, and her footwork as complex, precise and powerful as a dance routine. Snow was kind of a beautiful thing even if it was cold and it had always meant peril and hardship. Maybe the whole world was snow, in that sense.

Leo lost his focus and he sunk underwater.

His eyes started burning like the sun and Leo screamed underwater. The white liquid poured into his lungs and he would've screamed some more but he smartened up and emerged from the water.

He coughed once his head was above water, eyes tearing up. Leo closed his eyes and tried to send Khione some help- she was a million times less powerful than Gaia and it was very painfully apparent.

A faint ribbon of flames appeared behind Gaia. It was pathetic, but it was just enough to make Gaia jump back a bit and it gave Khione the perfect window to seize Gaia and make her slam against the ground. Three goons formed themselves out of the snow peppering the ground and ganged up on Gaia, who absorbed them into the earth time after time, before they could land a blow. Eventually Gaia caused the ground to spike up and down and Khione fell and tripped.

Leo's whole body was on fire. Literally as well.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on magma. Suddenly he was surrounded by a pit of magma, and Khione had to jump to avoid burning herself. He'd melted the whole floor!

"_You want to play it that way, little demigod? That's fine." _Gaia said. She put her hands in front of her chest, closing her eyes as if she were praying. Then she disappeared into the cavern floor and she didn't reappear.

But the floor and ceiling were suddenly pierced with stalactites and stalagmites, as if nails were being hammered in.

"She's IN THE WALLS!" Khione yelled, ducking and twisting her body to avoid it all. She turned into a blizzard, which cooled the magma on the ground back into a bumpy and uneven rock floor.

"_Well aren't you a bright one," _Gaia said. _"Dear Khione, I heard that people can get blinded by looking at the snow when the sun is reflected from it. Let's give you a taste of your own medicine, shall we?"_

Suddenly the whole cavern turned to jewels so bright they seemed to create their own light. Khione was forced back into her humanoid form and she was screaming her lungs out, shielding her eyes but screaming still. Maybe the brightness wasn't affecting Leo because fire was bright. Whatever the reason, his best ally was in extreme pain and unable to fight right then.

Gaia was laughing- just as she had when Mom had died, when Hazel had been buried in oil and jewels, when she was toying with the seven…

That gave Leo the will to fight. Thinking about all the other people who'd fought. And those who had died doing it.

Okay, clearly he was stuck in this pool of burning water, so he'd have to fight against his pain and find another way. That statement made him think of children of Athena, Quinn especially, and so he did a Quinn-like thing and used his brain. Besides; there was no way that they could defeat Gaia by strength.

He remembered a question Quinn had asked Jason about the legion's loyalties and if the fourth cohort was obligated to listen to Joan even if she was part of the coup against Rome, and Jason had replied that yes, they were because they were sworn to it.

Percy had pointed out that oaths could be broken. Jason had shaken his head and said that not this one; only Quinn could because she'd also been sworn in by Rome to help in the quest to defeat Gaia, hence her being on the Argo II. There was a specific kind of oath that the Romans used, precisely because oaths on the Styx could be broken. The most sacred oaths of all, that couldn't be broken back in Ancient Greece, back in Ancient Rome, and now in the present.

Oaths on the Earth.

Oaths on Gaia.

_An oath to keep with a final breath._

"GAIA!" Leo yelled. His heart was beating at a thousand miles an hour. "Over here! Look at me!"

She paid no attention to him.

"That dirt makes you look fat!"

Gaia turned to look at him and Leo spoke the words like someone spoke the words of someone who wasn't about to sacrifice it all. Calmly, rationally, clearly.

"I swear on the earth that as long as I live, so will you."

And then Leo dove to the deepest part of the Asykas-juice, and Gaia's screams filled his ears as he kicked and dove deeper and deeper, his ears popping because of the depth and his lungs and eyes on fire, his skin prickling, his clothes catching fire, his whole body begging for an out.

The liquid was flowing up; it was like Leo was swimming counter-current. Gaia was trying to save him. Leo actually laughed at the irony as he kept swimming, because he figured that laughing was the best way to do it. Well, it wasn't that funny. Gaia had some pretty intense motives to save him.

As long as Leo lived now, so would she.

If Leo died, so would she.

It seemed like a small sacrifice, even if it was the biggest thing Leo could give.

Jason

For no apparent reason Asykas started screaming in pain. No one had touched him- the gods had just sent him an electric choc to keep him from taking advantage of the Zhang Gift, but that had never done anything before.

Everyone was thrown off guard and confused, but they didn't waste their one chance. The gods doubled their efforts to tip him over, and at that moment Josie did the unthinkable.

She ran to the abandoned sun chariot, tipped it back up, snapped the reins of the horses, and took off into the sky.

"JOSIE!" Jason yelled after her, his concentration on the winds and lighting disappearing.

She paid no attention, just rode up to the unbalanced and screaming giant. He looked in pain, as if he was in a pool of fire.

Josie rode right up to the face and waited patiently, hovering in place for no reason.

"JOSIE MOVE!" Jason yelled at her, taking off from the ground.

But the giant grabbed her in his hands, in a grip that must've crushed her immediately.

And then the giant's hand exploded. It was Josie's power.

He was thrown off balance. The gods basically poked him and he fell.

A sacrifice…

The living half-bloods charged, all in shock, and swords and weapons were sunk into the giant as the gods held him down. Piper ran up his shoulder, onto his bare chest, and got him right in the heart. Jason, Percy and Hazel combined their powers one last time to break his skull at seven different places. They hit organs and blood vessels. Quinn hit a spot in the neck where the spinal cord must be- typical of her to aim for places like that.

Asykas started melting like chocolate in the sun. His skin turned to clay and was sucked back into the earth as he screamed, leaving behind oversized clothes and the shape of a teenaged boy curled up on his side.

Nothing else was there.

Leo

As far as he was concerned; the screaming of Gaia stopped right before his heart did.

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><p><strong>Annons!<strong>

**EditorGirl- I- I- oh my gods I can't anymore your reviews are always just too beautiful. I do love each one you give me, you're fantastic! And Ten Days of Percabeth needs two more oneshots in it, and it'll come with my best friend's birthday. Just wait a bit.**

**I guess this also answers your question that _NO, _you will not here from Josie's PoV again. Frank ain't dead. Tommy's alive.**

**Guest- Annabeth is currently dead.**

**Guest- I nearly went to include that! But no, I didn't have time. Though you are brilliant, my friend, brilliant.**

**Guest- I hope your NaNo's going well!**

**rikki- Well, not in this story they don't...**

**goodjob- *blushes* **

**annabeth523- I'd describe the sound that I just made to you, but it would scare you! Thank you!**

**Lexi- I'm doing my best! But I only post on Fridays. It's a pretty sweet deal though, I post regularly and on a schedule, and my chapters aren't just a few rushed out words.**

**Red- YAY THANK YOU!**


	107. XIII Reyna, Jason

**Hi guys! So, last night I FINALLY finished writing the story! So you've got about two chapters to go after today (expect the end on Friday and a chapter on Tuesday if all goes as planned), and then an epilogue which I've decided to do in mini-chapters for pairs of characters because I have dedications to make. **

**Here you go, enjoy, don't hate me, there will be no more nasty heart-breaking surprises.**

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

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><p>XIII<p>

Reyna

She was watching the First Cohort's lines crumble around her and the children of Ares doing their best to back it up, when all of a sudden there was nothing.

She looked left and right to check, but nothing was there. No opponent in sight. Swords that had been swung sliced through nothing but air, thrown spears landed in the ground… The demigods were alone.

The sun cleared up and the sky shone.

A giant cheer erupted from all the Greeks and the Romans fighting side by side.

Jason

Jason admitted that he collapsed as the gods let out cheers and thunder boomed in the sky. His body simply stopped seeing the threat, so it stopped producing fifty times its usual adrenaline supply, and he didn't have anything to run on. He, Hazel and Percy were the first down. Never, not even when he'd been fighting Krios without his sword, had he used so much energy and power. For a while Jason blacked out but after a few seconds he managed to push himself up.

Percy was lying like he'd do sit ups (Ha ha ha, as if he even had the energy to remember what a sit-up _was_) and his arms were over his face. He was crying after holding the world's most valid reason to cry inside for the whole day.

Hazel lied on her back and coughed as if she'd just swallowed something the size of her fist. Jason worried for a second, but he was sure she still had a few hours left in her if not more.

When he propped himself up he saw that Quinn's legs had abandoned under her, and the only moving person was Piper who had managed to get to Tommy before collapsing. He was sitting up, and they clutched each other. Piper was crying in his shoulder, probably fatigue and relief.

"Frank," Hazel said weakly.

Mars and Apollo knelt next to him and Jason's heart started beating fast. There was no sign of Josie, who had obviously died in battle anyways. The thought made his heart cringe and he couldn't decipher any of the emotions. That was horrible enough, but if they lost Frank…

He and Percy crossed looks and nodded.

Percy scooped up Hazel and they both limped over to see Frank.

Jason went to help Piper and Tommy.

"Hey man," Jason said. "Good to see you alive."

Tommy looked up. He was covered in something liquid and mucus-like.

"Back at you," he said exhausted.

"How'd you make it out?" Jason asked.

"I avoided the teeth," Tommy said with a small smile.

"Yes," Jason said holding out his arm. Tommy gladly accepted the help to get to his feet and Piper found strength in her legs. The aura surrounding her was gone. She was back to being Piper, someone he could talk to and reason with, and who could control her own emotions. The ring was back around her neck where it belonged, and Katoptris wasn't at her waist.

"How's Frank?" Piper asked.

"Not sure," Jason said. "He's got two gods with him…"

They went to check and Percy met them half-way, his face wet with tears and sweat.

"How is he?" Jason asked.

Percy's eyebrows furrowed and he cocked his head to the side.

"Umm- no leg," he said.

"What?" Tommy asked.

"What do you mean 'no leg'?" Jason said.

"Like, they just amputated it… On the battlefield… And now they're dressing the wound and trying to stop the bleeding." Percy said.

They all looked at him.

"Good to see you alive, Tommy. Grace, go talk to your cousin she's freaking out like never before and I just… I can't deal with that."

"Right," Jason said going forwards. "Go check on Quinn, you guys. And take it easy."

Hazel was kneeling next to Frank, looking more worried than he thought she ever could.

She looked up at Jason and he motioned for her to come. Hazel looked paler than before. Her hair seemed to have lost some of its cinnamon-like colour and her eyes weren't sparkling gold anymore, they were dull amber. She was skin on bones, and she just looked horrible.

"I don't know if he's going to be okay," Hazel said trembling as she walked.

"He will," Jason promised holding her close.

"If he gets an infection or if it doesn't work or if he's lost too much blood…" Hazel said, looking like she was about to burst into tears.

"We're not in the 1940's," Jason said tightening his grip. "These things are all treatable. Besides, Frank wouldn't leave without saying goodbye."

"He's knocked out cold," Hazel said.

"Exactly," Jason said. "No goodbye."

Quinn limped over to see Hazel and the two kind of collapsed into each other's arms and started crying.

"Josie…" Hazel said.

"I know," Quinn said. "She really is gone."

Jason left them alone and went to stand with Percy.

"We've got to find Leo," the son of Poseidon reminded him.

Jason raised his wrist and tapped on his bracelet to produce the map. He could see their cluster of dots in Greece. The armies in the US were spread out, and less dense than before. It wouldn't matter anymore. They were safe. Jason wished he felt more relieved, but he couldn't get past his fatigue. All he wanted was to find Leo, make sure Frank got out of it, go home, make sure Rome was okay, and above all: see Reyna. He _had _to make sure he was okay.

Anyways, they couldn't find Leo.

"We could still see him and Frank when they were under the earth," Percy said carefully.

Jason's brain was going as fast as it could. He tried not to imagine the worst.

"There must be a reason. Maybe the magic of these is wearing off."

"They were built by gods; that magic doesn't wear off."

"Hey, be positive," Jason said. "And don't tell the others yet, we're not sure."

Percy nodded and Jason put a hand on his shoulder.

"You're okay, man."

"No I'm not," Percy said.

"But you will be, okay? We're still alive, and we're still all in this together. We always will be too."

Jason took a deep breath and tried for a smile. Percy nodded.

Frank woke up a few minutes later and he was so confused by the prosthetic leg now attached where the right one had been previously. It had a plastic foot but it was mostly metal, much thinner than Frank's real leg had been. He didn't have time to pay much attention to it; Hazel was in his arms as soon as possible.

Mars and Apollo left, leaving the demigods alone.

Quinn sighed at Jason's right. He looked at her.

"Your sister's okay," Quinn said. "Well, she was when the hunters saw her again."

"Thanks, Quinn. You were busy," Jason noted.

Quinn rubbed her knees. "I am _so _sore." She said. "I ran a race against Atalanta."

Jason's eyes widened and he wouldn't have believed it if it weren't from Quinn's mouth.

"Hey, Tommy," Frank said upon noticing the other demigod.

"Hey, Zhang." Tommy said stretching out his hand. Frank slapped it and that was that. Frank didn't even ask how the other boy was still alive, and he probably didn't want to know either.

"Josie's dead," Hazel brought up.

They all shut up and stood there.

"She sacrificed herself for us. For the world." Percy said. He shook his head. "I'm sick of sacrifice."

"I think she knew she'd die all day," Jason said. He told them about what Josie had said at the beach; about Hugo and how they should find him in Màlaga.

"Did she ever mention a Hugo to you two?"

Quinn and Hazel were both bashful and blushing.

"No," they said. They clearly had an idea of who he was, though. Jason had a bad feeling he knew too.

"Zhang you look exhausted," Percy –who wasn't really in a place to say that based on his face- said.

"You know what; I'll find a giant to throw you around and we'll see how that goes," Frank said.

"I think we're all exhausted," Jason said. "I'll go talk to the gods and find out what is going on."

Percy followed. Jason waited as they had a conversation. Percy was having none of that, and he picked up a rock and threw it at his dad for attention, which Jason would've been disowned and killed for doing.

"Zeus," Poseidon said.

The Lord of the sky looked above his shoulder. Jason bowed and he tugged on Percy's arm to make him do it too.

"Permission to speak, Praetor Grace."

Jason got up.

"The demigods are wondering what the next step is."

Jason didn't ask for the next orders because he was pretty sure that at the sound of the word, the demigods would lose it and go into killing sprees using their own specific tactics and talents.

"Ah yes," Jupiter said. "Well, I suppose there is only one thing _to _do."

They were all in the throne room of Olympus, and Leo Valdez was standing there waiting for them.

* * *

><p><strong>Annons<strong>

goodjob- Thank you! No problem! You're welcome! I don't know how to respond!

Caitlin- I'm really glad you've liked it!

Guest- She timed her sacrifice with when she knew Leo was drowning. That was all.

SonofRome- Thank you!

annabeth523- I'll think of something ;)

Ally- Hi! Thank you so much I'm glad you liked it! And I agree about the closure.

Guest- Sorry, does this make it better?

Randomness Rocks- Thank you for understanding :)

Azurill- You guys are just way too determined to try and figure out if I'm a serial killer or not :)


	108. XIV Leo

**Guys, I'm weak. I can do lots of stuff, but killing Leo? He's my icon, dudes. **

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><p>XIV<p>

Leo

When Leo woke up and he wasn't on fire anymore. Not even literally. He was lying on something cold, like marble or snow. His eyes fluttered open and he saw that he was still in Gaia's chamber. A big part of its ceiling had collapsed, destroying most of the places that were reserved for strategy and Asykas' pit was dried out and empty. Dirt Lady was nowhere to be seen, and Khione was leaning over Leo, brushing his bangs out of his forehead. A few months ago Leo would've passed out again.

"Leo," Khione said. "By the gods- I was sending your soul to the Underworld."

"Yeah I'd appreciate if you stopped that."

He rubbed his forehead and sat up, Khione's hand on his back helping him outs.

"How am I alive?" Leo asked. "I mean, I'm not complaining because living is good and Dirt Lady doesn't seem to be around but…"

"My guess is that the gods resuscitated all of those who died in today's battles." Khione said. "But I can't be sure."

Leo was fine with that explanation.

And then part of him sank because that didn't count Hazel, who'd died long before all of the war's other warriors were even thought of. The last chance for her was the tiny statue Frank had.

And then there was Annabeth, who had also died before the first shot was fired. She was gone for good too.

"What happens now?" Leo asked sitting up and crossing his legs. He was cold.

"They're probably going to go to the Olympian Throne Room," Khione had said.

"Cool, bring me." Leo said.

Khione hesitated.

"I can't. I'm banned."

"Surely not after all of that," Leo said waving his hand. "I'm sure you redeemed yourself."

"I don't know, Leo." Her eyes dropped to the ground. "My mistake was horrible."

"So was Gaia's breath."

Khione cracked a smile.

"I'll bring you, but I won't stay. I want to talk to my father first, and my brothers. Apologise before anything else."

Leo nodded.

"You were really brave, and you saved my life a couple of times Khione. I'm pretty sure you can be forgiven."

Khione smiled. "Not everyone is as optimistic as you, Leo."

"I know. Shame, because it's good to be a Valdez."

Khione smiled, and ten seconds later there he was, in the Olympian throne room. He was examining his dad's throne and wondering in how much trouble he'd be if he touched it when the others popped up.

Everyone except for Josie. Why wasn't she alive?

He got the tackle-hugs and the hand-grips and the back slaps and everything, and they all swapped stories as the gods got settled in. Everyone looked tired, and most seemed to have recently cried.

They asked Leo how he was still alive, and he told them about what Khione thought the gods had done. Hephaestus wasn't supposed to, but he confirmed it, which brought smiles to everybody's faces. They probably hadn't lost many people.

Then Jason somehow managed to line everyone up to face the King and the Queen of the gods.

"We summon the leaders of the war," Jupiter said.

Malcolm appeared in the throne room looking as uncomfortable as a guy could, Nyssa was there looking badass and tough as per usual. Reyna marched in and Leo heard Jason sigh in relief when she got closer. She was back into her praetor armour, regal and official as per usual, and her hair was pinned out of her face. She had two black eyes, cuts around her cheeks, and her bottom lip was cracked. She looked horrible, but great at the same time.

"Reyna," Jason said.

"None of that, Jason Grace." She said the second he spoke up.

Jason broke the lines, grabbed her and kissed her. Reyna put her hands behind his head and Leo was pretty sure they'd never kissed that intensely before, much less in front of people, much less in front of the Olympian counsel.

Malcolm seemed to have put one and two together and realised why Annabeth was missing. His face was sombre. Nyssa stopped by and gave Leo a clumsy one-armed hug on her way to the back of the line.

They all broke apart and went to bow to their respective parents. Leo and Nyssa elbowed each other at the foot of Hephaestus' throne. Well, okay, he elbowed her and she acted in self-defence.

The only one who didn't move was Percy, who stood in the middle of the throne room with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Percy Jackson," Jupiter said. "It would do good to you to honour your father."

Percy starred at the god with those green eyes, practically drilling it into whatever he looked. _I refuse, I refuse, I refuse._

Nobody moved.

"Perseus Jackson," Jupiter repeated.

Percy then moved, but he didn't go see Poseidon.

He knelt at the throne of Athena, lower than he probably would've knelt to his father, leaving the whole room speechless and shocked. Nobody quite knew what to do, and Leo was trying to figure out if that was legal. Was there some kind of handbook where that was all written out?

Athena slowly rose from her throne, walked down the steps that led to it as her size turned to human.

She stood at Percy's level.

And the goddess bowed as well.


	109. XV Hazel

**This is out late, but that's because I've just revised 23 pages for you guys. Good news for you, perhaps bad for me, you guys are _probably possibly it depends on my_ _schedule_getting another chapter before Friday and ANOTHER on Friday! So yay! **

**I'd really appreciate some reviews with a lot of CC, as per usual, because this chapter has A LOT going on in it, and I've been anticipating it for a long time and you guys are usually very good! So thanks for that in advance.**

**Disclaimer: Me no Own**

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><p>XV<p>

Hazel

Lupa came in, followed by a centaur.

"Chiron you're alive!" Percy said immediately, eyes wide.

The centaur beamed. "Indeed, young hero. Brave, brave hero." Chiron said holding out his hand. Percy advanced to shake it, and it ended in a hug.

"H-how?" Piper asked, getting her own hug a few seconds later.

"Lupa saved me," Chiron said. "She and her wolves turned out at camp after the nymphs were forced to abandon camp. She tracked me in the ruins and healed me best as she could. Now that Gaia's gone; I'm fine, and I expect to stay that way."

Lupa was too busy to hear. Jason held her glare for a few seconds before bowing to the wolf. She advanced and licked his cheeks, as if he were her pup.

_"I am proud of you, Jason Grace. You have honestly proved your worth to my camp, and even more; to your homeland."_

"Thank you Mother," Jason said keeping his head low.

Chiron was looking at Percy, and then at the group of Greek half-bloods. He noticed that Annabeth wasn't there, but said nothing. He only squeezed Percy's shoulder.

For a while IM screens were showing battle carnage and so forth.

They saw the siege of Rome by the Greeks, and then they saw Camp gently pass the power back to Reyna because it didn't mean a thing to them. They saw Cate Amjad dying with a boy apparently called Connor Stoll next to her (who'd have thought?, all those who knew him insisted) and Quinn was nearly in tears. Jason had the most devastated look on his face, as if he'd failed.

They saw Reyna fighting Joan, the old centurion for the fourth cohort. And this wasn't just fighting, which Hazel had seen and done a lot of today. Something about the way Reyna moved made it look like the most ferocious and terrifying thing in the world, but also alluring. It was the scariest side of Reyna, one that Hazel was sure she'd never forget. She fought harder than anyone would, persisting through injuries, and yes. Reyna did kill someone in the end.

Reyna looked away from the screen during that moment. Hazel could tell that although she'd hated Joan, she would have rather left the tyrant live someway.

They saw what Hazel assumed was Camp Half-Blood getting destroyed by the forces of Gaia, and the nature spirits flee back to the ocean or into the forest to live and charge another day at other battles. The arrangement of odd little buildings, the cabins, and the big house in the middle of their valley burned.

They saw the individual battles of giants- pairs of gods and their children together and fighting desperately.

They saw Quinn running through Gaia's lair and Hazel was _so i_mpressed_. _And also terrified. She bargained and acted smarter than Hazel ever could, while she was running at the speed and pace of a gazelle. And then she fought a huge Mother-of-all-spider (literally). Quinn hid her face in her hands when that footage rolled, but everyone knew she was a hero.

Percy's face darkened when Annabeth's ghost appeared in the picture. She said something to Quinn that they couldn't hear, though.

They saw Leo fighting with Khione and Gaia. Everyone looked at him in awe and he tried not to look and shrug it off.

"That's what the prophecy meant," Jason said.

_"Seven half-bloods to answer the call," _Apollo said counting on his fingers. "The Seven who actually killed giants. Percy, Jason, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Piper and Josie that is. _To storm or to fire the world must fall- _well there you go, fire won. _An oath to keep with a final breath- _that can be two things; Annabeth's oath to Chiron or Leo's oath on the earth."

"What?" Percy asked. "What oath to Chiron?"

The images on the IM shimmered a bit, they'd probably taken on a life of their owns showing images. Percy and Annabeth looked younger- so much younger, probably the age Hazel had now. They were with Chiron in a room, and it looked like they were packing up. There was music playing- it was old, but not as old as Hazel liked and remembered her music.

The centaur brushed a tear from Annabeth's cheek, a real fatherly action as if they'd known each other for a long, long time.

"Stay with Percy, child. Keep him safe. The prophecy- remember it!"

"I-I will."

"Um…" Percy sounded lost and rather unhappy about it. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about?"

Nobody answered.

"Right, just checking."

"Chiron…" Annabeth sounded nervous. "You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp-"

"Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger," Chiron told Annabeth insistently. "Sweat upon the River Styx!"

"I- I swear it on the River Styx." She said.

Apollo ignored both Percy and the image that had just appeared. "_And foes bear arms to the doors of death- _well, that's what happened in America."

Reyna inclined her head in agreement.

"Make your pick. Personally I think the first one is more dramatic and tense, but-"

"Regardless, it is indeed evident that these demigods all deserve to be rewarded," Jupiter said standing. "I therefore return to the Romans the honours taken from you by Octavian Dalton and Joan Golan.

Jason Grace and Reyna Bell."

The two stepped forwards.

"You are reinstated as the praetors of Rome." Jupiter said. "And the Principia will be rebuilt by the time you return to Rome."

Jason didn't even let any confusion show, though Hazel frowned. The principia was destroyed? Probably in the fight to get Reyna back in power.

Jason and Reyna both bowed, their movements synchronised.

"Reyna Bell," Mars called his voice strong and deep.

Reyna turned her corner as sharply as if she were in a military march, and bowed to the god of war.

"Stand up." He said.

Reyna did, not showing any sign of being intimidated.

"You killed someone in my temple." He said.

"She killed someone in my fort." Reyna replied just as coldly.

Nobody said anything. Hazel was scared that one more person _would _die today after all."

Mars grinned. "I like you. You've got guts, kid."

Reyna bowed respectfully and they took back their places in the lines.

"Perseus Jackson," Jupiter called.

Percy, this time, went to see his father.

"You're a hard one to please. Even immortality won't do for you."

"I still won't accept it." Percy said.

"We don't offer the gift twice. But after discussion," Jupiter said standing, "The Olympian counsel has decided to allow those who died either battling a giant or on a battlefield in America to live."

"Annabeth died before," Percy said.

Hazel's stomach tied into a knot. So had she. There was no way any rule like that would cover her.

"Josie didn't," somebody whispered amongst the crew.

"NO!" A voice said. Everyone looked everywhere in shock to find her, and they did.

It was Josie, standing near Apollo except she was cleaner, better dressed in a red sweater and jeans, and her weight was healthier than anyone in that room had ever seen her as. Her hair fell in clean, gentle waves around her face instead of the tight ponytail. Her face didn't look as angular. But her eyes still burned with their usual complete and utter anger and hate.

"Josie," Hazel whispered. Her heart was tight and

Josie advanced, looking around.

She looked especially at the demigods.

"I need to tell you something that I couldn't tell you on the ship," Josie said.

"It is _so _difficult knowing everything. Knowing the future, knowing things you're not supposed to… You have to constantly watch what you say so you don't spoil anything, and your life feels so useless because you can't influence it, you already know what'll happen. It's like watching the movie of a book you read, and not even a good book." Josie shook her head. "And of course you're a freak. My own mother… she kicked me out because she knew this about me. If I was ever rude and agitated it was because I was sick of all of the worrying about things that would turn out fine, or because I didn't mind hurting you because I knew you'd get over it. And maybe because I am a little rude. If I was impatient it was because I couldn't wait to get to a certain event."

She took a deep breath.

"It's a big burden. I used to draw things when I was a baby, about exactly this day in this throne room. Frank with the prosthetic leg, to Reyna with the two black eyes, and the arms of every throne in between."

She'd never been introduced to Reyna.

"Eventually people go insane from being clairvoyant. One way or another. Maybe they try to double their work by attempting to host an oracle, maybe they just leave themselves exposed too long." Josie said. She turned towards the Olympians. "I followed Percy onto the Argo II and learned to use the bow knowing that I would die today. I would have a year to live before I lose it. And I would have a lot of things to live that year for," she said looking at the crew. "But I rather my redemption go to someone who will live longer and who will live for more."

Josie starred at Apollo, then Pluto.

"Understood," Pluto said. "Say your goodbyes, little hero."

Josie opened her arms for whoever would come hug her, and it ended up being all of the crew. Even Reyna, Malcolm and Nyssa shook hands.

She looked Jason in the eyes.

"You taught me more than I thought you would," she told Jason. "Do you remember what I said about Hugo?"

"Yes," Jason said.

"I can tell you more than that now. He…" Josie was speechless. For the one time. She turned to Apollo. "Do the thing with the screens, it's easier."

The screens showed Josie in the streets Hazel knew as Malaga. Full of life and action and sound…

Josie was standing near a car door. She stretched her neck, looked left and right, and took a shoelace out of her pocket. Using only a shoelace, Josie unlocked the car door. She leaned into the vehicle quickly, grabbed a wallet and a pair of sunglasses. She leaned out of the car, nearly safe, but then someone yelled at her in Spanish. Strangely Hazel understood it as an accusation. Josie slammed the door and took off running.

Police officers chased her. Josie squeezed through tourists, around the booths of a market, and she nearly got hit by a car as she ran through the street.

She burst into a less crowded area and a boy with hair, eyes and clothes as dark as a raven's peeled himself off the wall to talk to her.

"No time!" She yelled tossing him the wallet. He caught it, looked over his shoulder and straight at a police officer, and ran after a very loud swear word.

"Popo on the go-go!" He yelled, turning on his heels and sprinting with her. He pulled her into an alley after they lost themselves in the crowd. They ran down it, climbed on a pile of empty crates and ended safely in the back area of a coffee shop.

Josie crumbled against the wall.

"That better be some good eating you and I have," she said taking the wallet from his hands. She checked in it, going through pouches and pockets inside the wallet.

"Gift cards too!" He said.

"And credit cards- I say we use those first before they cancel."

"Any euros?" The boy asked.

"Lots and lots of Euros." Josie said. "I love tourists who keep everything together."

"Too bad the pamphlets all warn them not to. I got one too," he said showing a Hello Kitty shaped coin bag. "It's not much."

"So I get to pick where we eat," Josie said.

"I don't want to eat more pasta," he whined.

"Then become slicker, Hugo."

"Oh how can I ever _hope _to be as fantastic as the one, the only, Giosetta Esposito?"

"Stop it."

"But alas the very gods of the world sing of you as their heroin-"

"Hugo."

"And only they can aspire to your greatness?"

"I will put forks in you."

"And I am but a silly mortal-"

"You're a peasant."

"Who can only hope to occasionally bathe in a slimmer of the light shining off your great-"

"Shut it," Josie said a small smile on her lips. Hugo laughed and Josie put her head on his shoulder. He stopped laughing and frowned.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Just a headache."

"We have money now; do you want me to find aspirin?"

"No I'm okay," Josie said. "Just keep talking. I like it."

"Should it be in the form of epic, sonnet or ballad?"

"You have poetic license," Josie said, closing her eyes and snuggling up.

The image faded and Josie looked Jason in the eye.

"Even you are creative enough to figure it out." She said.

Jason nodded. "I'll find him. Don't worry."

"I don't know if he's still on the streets now." She said.

"I'll find him." Jason promised.

She held onto Quinn and Hazel for a little longer.

"Be good to each other." She said.

"Of course, Josie," Hazel said kissing her cheek.

"We'll miss you," Quinn said. "You were brave."

"No I wasn't. I'm a coward running from deeper insanity than I'm already in." Josie said. "Now I get to run in the Underworld. So watch out."

They both smiled. Hazel nearly said "See you there", but she didn't want to do that to Quinn. Her friend wasn't dumb, but maybe she hadn't connected the dots yet.

Percy looked up at Poseidon wondering where this was all going. He'd just watched a friend die a second time. This wasn't good for him.

Then Annabeth appeared in the middle of the throne room, her hair tangled and wet, her skin pale. She wore her usual orange t-shirt and jeans, and she was soaked from head to toe. Her hands flew to her mouth before anyone could even react, her eyes on Percy's. Percy's shoulders dropped and he took a few steps forwards, like he was seeing a ghost. Hazel's heart nearly exploded because no, he wasn't seeing a ghost.

Annabeth lowered her hands and looked at Percy. She looked like she'd start crying any second.

"I didn't mean any of the things I've said." She said.

Percy ran towards her and grabbed her in a hug. Annabeth broke down in his shoulder, and Percy's eyes were tearing up again. Hazel felt like suddenly, they had won the war.

They were crying in the middle of the throne room in front of all the gods, the highest officials of Rome and the most powerful demigods in the times. But nobody could think of anything more appropriate.

Percy closed his eyes and turned his eyes up. When he opened them, his lips formed words of thankfulness and relief. He tried to be comforting, and he did calm Annabeth down.

Hazel smiled, trying to keep it to herself.

Annabeth turned away from Percy and looked at Quinn. Her little sister broke the ranks and went to hug her. Annabeth held her tight and Quinn was taking deep, rationed breaths.

"I thought I'd lost my big sister," she said.

"I'm so sorry, Quinn." Annabeth said. "You were magnificent. Arachne, Quinn, _Arachne." _

Quinn laughed a bit, though it sounded terrified.

"I didn't tell Percy," she said. "I think you owe him an explanation."

Annabeth stood up straight and looked to Percy. Quinn backed away.

Annabeth took a deep breath to stop her tears, and took Percy's hands.

"The reason… you weren't Gaia's pawn like she said you would be. Because the only way that that would have happened would have been if she'd have had some leverage over you."

"So if she'd have had you," Percy said brushing the bangs from her forehead, finally understanding.

She'd spent the last little while antagonising Annabeth and hating her for what she'd done to her cousin, and now Hazel was a huge pot of melted feelings inside.

"Exactly, and… and I knew that. I knew I was your weakness."

"You were always a bigger Achilles' heel than my back was," Percy said.

"I wanted to make sure that when I fell you wouldn't fall with me," Annabeth tried to explain though her whole face looked on the verge of tears again.

Hazel felt like all those times when you looked for something and found it lying at your feet ages later. But she felt guiltier, because she had genuinely hated Annabeth for what she'd done to her cousin.

"That wasn't smart of you Wise Girl," Percy said. "There's enough stupidity in the world, but not enough architects."

He kissed her, and it was clear that two months of missing each other were popping up and going on right now. Annabeth's hands cupped his cheeks and they seemed to melt into each other, and Hazel wondered if they'd ever stop for air.

Hazel's vision was suddenly like a series of pictures, like Hazel was looking at a flipbook one page at a time instead of flipping the pages.

She saw everyone looking at her in alarm, Percy and Annabeth holding hands. Percy was trying to say something to her.

She saw the skylights of the throne room, noon sun and blue sky above her. She must be lying down.

She saw Frank and Leo leaning against her, their lips frozen as if they were calling for her.

Hazel was choking. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't cough. The world was hazy and distant. She was shaking, as if she were having a seizure. Arching back, shaky limbs, wild kicks and curling fingers. Her body wasn't even trying to get any oxygen in its bloodstream; it was just letting it go. It was her time. It was more than her time; it was seventy years past it.

Frank's face was the last thing she saw before her head rolled to the side and all she saw was the bottoms of thrones, reminding her of her place in the universe.

Suddenly the world was full of light. Feet were coming towards her, wearing old, old shoes instead of battle-worn, muddy, and perhaps bloody sneakers. Someone tilted her chin up and she saw Sammy leaning over her, except not fourteen years old anymore. He was in his twenties or thirties, much more handsome than Hazel remembered him, and more mature looking. All grown-up- but he still had that silly and crazy Sammy grin that Hazel would never forget about him.

He smiled. "Thanks Hazel," he said. "I can't stay for long because, you know, I'm oblivion now. But I just want to tell you that I never forgot you. Remembering who I was and what I felt with you got me out of a bad marriage, right before Leo's mom was born. But don't worry, I didn't ditch. I tried to be a good person."

Hazel saw the second person, a woman she had seen a long time ago. A woman the judges of the underworld had shown her- happy, wearing a white dress, hair up in braids, smiling, glowing, beautiful. The adult version of herself.

"Think of yourself as the second Hazel," the woman said putting a hand on her cheek. "I'll fulfil the first one's spot in the underworld, and you can live in the real one."

Hazel was so confused.

"Tell Leo that his mother says hello," Sammy said.

Hazel would have asked about the second Hazel and where she'd come from, but she couldn't figure anything out and asking a question was hard when that happened.

"Try coughing," Sammy suggested, putting an arm around the other Hazel's waist.

Hazel couldn't do it, but she eventually managed.

Sammy and the older Hazel disappeared after the first cough, and she started feeling everything around her again- the coldness and hardness of the floor, the anxious voices that at the same time held a deep silence, the pleasant temperature of Olympus… and her own coughing.

She was coughing.

She was alive.

"Hazel!" Frank said.

She outstretched her arms and he helped her sit up. She leaned into his chest and kept coughing until her breathing settled down.

"It worked!" Leo said throwing his hands in the air. He got up and danced around for a bit, more excited than Hazel had ever seen him.

"What's going on?" Hazel asked weakly. She cleared her throat and her voice was back to normal. She didn't feel bad anymore. Her skin had its usual colour- not a bad, nasty, pale version of it. Her vision and focus was clear. She heard everything crystal clearly. She was healthy.

"Leo saved you," Frank said kissing the top of her head.

"No, Frank did. I was just Repair Boy." Leo said giving her a hand to get up. She did, and Frank managed to get up, refusing Leo's help although his new leg was clearly bothering him. Hazel hoped he'd get used to it very soon.

He hugged her. "I'm glad you're alive, Hazy Haze."

"You still can't call me that," she said shaking her head.

Leo grinned. It was her nickname for life, she knew. And now she actually had a life to go with it.

"What..?" Quinn asked, looking relieved. Jason and Percy beamed at her.

"We'll explain later," Leo said. "To all of you."

"Oh, Leo," she said. "Sammy –I saw Sammy, except he was older- he told me… he told me that your mom says-"

"Hello?" A god suggested. It looked like Vulcan.

Before Hazel could talk two women appeared in the middle of the throne room, frozen like they'd been in the middle of doing completely different things.

"I will give you five drachmas if-" the first one froze and looked around her surroundings, her posture adjusting to the kind of in-battle pose Reyna or Percy or Jason often had. She was Asian, with black hair cut to the middle of her neck. She wore dessert camouflage, her top unbuttoned over a white tank top. She must be so much smaller without it; she was so tiny it made Hazel think of a bird.

"Anza," she called immediately.

"Still here," the other woman replied. She was Latino, with the most gorgeously dark brown eyes Hazel had ever seen, premature lines etching around them. She was beautiful, but not in a gentle or fragile way- this woman could probably get hit by a bulldozer and live to chew out the driver until his ears poured blood. Her hair fell in wild tight black curls around her head. She wore denim stained with black oil, and she stood tall.

Hazel's heart sunk.

The first woman grabbed the second one's wrist and spun her around so they both faced the demigods. Their faces broke into smiles.

"Frank."

"_Mijo." _

Hazel didn't know which of the two ran faster. Probably Leo seeing as he'd run all his life. Also his leg wasn't busted.

Esperanza Valdez and Emily Zhang hugged their sons, holding them close. Hazel found herself holding her breath.

"Look at you," Esperanza said running her hand through Leo's curls. "You've grown so much. Are you trying to give me a heart attack? _Cómo lo haces_?"

* * *

><p>"I swear you didn't have those muscles last time I saw you," Emily said, holding Frank at arm's length and just looking at him. "And I was still taller than you."<p>

"Mom, you haven't been taller than me since the seventh grade."

"No, no- I was taller," Emily smiled.

She brought him back closer.

"Oh my gods," she said. "Look at you, look at you…" She said. Her voice lowered so that only he would hear. "I've never been prouder, Frank."

* * *

><p>"Mama, I'm so sorry," Leo said.<p>

"For what in the world, _mijo? _Saving the world? Growing? Growing is an acceptable reason to apologise in your case."

"For setting the fire," Leo muttered.

Esperanza bent down to look him in the eyes, a hand on his cheek.

"You didn't do it, Leo. You were a tool. You didn't want it, you didn't have the idea, you didn't control it. You were a tool, and that is nothing wrong. There is nothing wrong with you _mijo, _and there never has been_. _Except for your incredible ability to be guilty," Esperanza said. "And I want you to understand this so badly, but I can't sit down with you like with homework. I hope one day you learn to forgive yourself."

* * *

><p>"I feel like I have to apologise," Emily said.<p>

"What for?" He asked.

"Dying. Dying so far away from home, and I'm not saying you're young and incapable but my timing was horrible and-" Emily said.

"Mom…" Frank said.

"I know you were mad," Emily said. "And frankly, there's no reason you wouldn't have been. I know what it looks like; like I put my job or my country in front of my son."

Frank didn't say anything and his mother sighed.

"The thing is Frank… I always told you that the best war strategy was to avoid it. And I told you to pick your fights with your Grandmother, but that applies in a bigger sense, to the big world. I met kids in Afghanistan and there was this one girl…" Emily smiled at the memory. "She was about your age, and so much like you- brave, smiling, happy, funny and strong- all without knowing it. She thanked me because 'my friends and I' had made sure that she got to go to school. She said I'd made her world better. That's the best thing you can hear from someone, Frank, at least if you're me. Because for me, making the world you were going to live in better was always a fight worth picking. And I don't think I ever explained that to you properly."

Frank hugged her.

"I'm not even mad, Mom. Not anymore."

* * *

><p>Demigods and gods alike shut up and let Leo and Esperanza, and Frank and Emily catch up (although Leo and his mom kept switching to Spanish so it was really hard to understand, but it showed really clearly where in the world Leo came from). It was actually really funny in a way, Esperanza was so interested in the Argo II and so speechless by it- asking questions about pistons and motors and things nobody else could understand, Emily Zhang wanted every single battle's play-by-play and she was so into battle and strategy, but also really reasonable about it. Also she was trying not to panic about the fact that her son had an artificial leg now.<p>

But it was also very sad. There shouldn't be this much catching up to do.

"So after _that _the social worker tried to get someone in the family to take me in _again," _ Leo said. "Aunt Rosa refused again, and by that time Uncle Lorenzo's 'maybe' turned into a 'no' because she went on this massive campaign throughout the family…"

"Emily," Esperanza called. "Remind me to haunt the living hell out of my sister, later."

"Got it," Emily agreed before turning back to Frank.

* * *

><p>Hazel listened up when Emily tried to clear up some things about the Zhang family gift to Frank because she was pretty sure he'd need reminding later.<p>

"What's your specialty?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"What do you turn into best?"

"I don't know. Like, elephants."

"Mammals," Emily concluded.

"Yeah, them." Frank said.

"I knew it. If I was alive your Grandmother would owe me ten dollars. She said you'd like birds best, like me."

"You bet about this?" Frank asked surprised. "Grandmother _bets?"_

"She's a shameless gambler," Emily nodded. "Anyways, everyone has a specialty. Don't try to stay in animal form for more than about three hours without taking a break, you might get stuck. Some ancestors have had longer endurance, I'm guessing your maximum might be about eight hours, but use three as a base."

"People have gotten stuck as animals?" Frank asked horrified.

Emily nodded. "You remember how Grandmother's brother disappeared? He actually spent the last five years of his life as a moose. Please don't do that, but if you insist go for something a little better than a moose."

* * *

><p>"So the syncopators make sure that the fluids inside the Doodly-smoots are controlled while they mix so that the chain reaction is controlled and only big enough to go through the whatchamacallit tube and to the engine, instead of, say, blowing up the entire ship," Leo said, his lips and hands moving at a million miles an hour. He was so excited by his invention, and he'd finally found someone to whom he could explain it without totally confusing to death. "Does that make sense?"<p>

"Yes," Esperanza said. "But here's the thing, _mijo, _what controls the syncopators? See –and you wouldn't know this because it's very theoretical and you run by instincts- but…"

* * *

><p>"So are you going to tell me about that?" Emily asked nudging towards Frank's new leg. Hazel was all ears.<p>

"Oh… Yeah, I wanted to stop Leo and Khione from killing each other so I kind-of got in the middle of it and I got hit by the snowy side of things and then I was working with it but I got thrown onto the ground and I passed out and I woke up and I had this and a bunch of gods and Hazel around."

"Ah," Emily said. "So how are you already walking with it? I can count the number of amputees I know who learned to walk properly after the first month on one hand."

Frank frowned.

"You're getting godly help," Mars said. "So make sure you've got something to hold on to the second you get out of this building."

"Good to know," Frank said not sounding very impressed.

"You're in charge of making sure he gets to learn to walk," Emily told Mars.

"I'm a god," Mars said.

"Yeah and I'm a legacy and these guys are demigods. I didn't ask your status of immortality, I told you to help him." Emily said.

Hazel –as well as most demigods by the looks of it- was impressed by Emily's guts and sass.

"No direct interference," Mars added to make his point more valid.

"If your mother can't respect that, then don't do it either and claim it's genetic," Emily said pointing at Juno. "You're in charge, find a way."

Frank couldn't help but laugh at his mom.

"I'll be okay, Mom." He promised.

"I know," she winked.

* * *

><p>"So…" Leo said looking at his mom. "You know Frank's Mom?"<p>

"Yeah, I rescued her." Esperanza said.

"Hey, that sounds like I'm a stray you found on the street." Emily reproached.

"That's basically what happened." Esperanza replied.

"Was not," Emily said.

"You two know each other?" Frank repeated, looking slightly horrified.

"This is a complicated thing that happens to soldiers. Basically you die a long way from home or wherever you're going to be buried, but you died in battle and you become honorable and righteous, so your application to Elysium is just sent through straight and you're in right away. The reason that that's bad is because you're not... I don't know the physics of it, but I remember that part of me was in Canada, part of me was in Afghanistan at the base, part of me was near the road I died on, and another was in Africa which I don't understand why. I wasn't really all there."

"I saw her looking sick and I thought she was drunk," Esperanza shrugged.

"I was not that badly off," Emily said.

"Yes you were," Esperanza snapped at her. She turned back towards Leo and Frank. "Either way, I kept an eye on her and made sure nothing bad happened until she was back to her usual overactive self."

"Hey," Emily said elbowing her.

"Her usual annoying self."

"Don't listen to Anza, she's having a bad day because the floor broke again." Emily said. "But yeah, she took care of me until I was buried and got my brain back together. And then we talked and found out that our kids' lives were complicated by a certain ruler of Olympus who I won't name."

Hera huffed.

"_Hola Tia_," Esperanza said.

"Then we realised that we got along and liked the same food, and so now we live together because there's an overpopulation and loneliness problem in the Underworld, so we figured 'why not'."

"And so next one of you who dies, I'm taking you in and kicking her out." Esperanza said.

"Oh come on, you love me. Or you'll learn." Emily said. Esperanza laughed.

"Can't teach an old dog new tricks, Zhang."

"I can turn _into _said dog, so I count myself as exempted from that rule." Emily said.

"Well if I listened to you all the time…"

"Ladies," Hades said. His hand was tapping his opposite wrist, as if there was a watch there.

Esperanza clucked her tongue and huffed. She pulled Leo closer and kissed the top of his head.

"_Mijo, _we're going to have to go, but can you make me one more promise?" She said holding him close.

"Yes," Leo said automatically.

Hazel knew what she was going to say before she even said it. She hadn't brought it up during the whole conversation with Leo, she'd let him talk and talk and talk and she'd kept it happy.

"Don't run, okay? Stop running. It's not good for you, it's not safe for you, and you don't have anything to run from."

Esperanza was looking straight at the crew.

"I know," Leo said looking at them, following his Mom's gaze. "Now I don't."

Emily Zhang gave her son one final hug, and he wrapped his arms around her.

"I am so proud of the young man you've become, Frank." She said. "More than I've ever been."

"Even if I'm taller than you?" Frank muttered.

"Especially since you're taller than me, thank god your father's genetics provided _something _useful."

Emily winked at Mars, and kissed Frank on the head.

With that they disappeared and Frank and Leo's shoulders dropped a bit. But they stood tall as they walked back into lines. Frank got a pat on the back from Percy, and Hazel squeezed his hand.

The gods were silent for a few moments. Mars and Vulcan still looked like they were recovering from a major stress.

"Quintina Hunter," Jupiter called. Quinn looked paralyzed. Hazel sent her a look, trying to be encouraging.

Quinn went forth and knelt.

"While in Troy," he said. "I did promise that I would reward you for your survival."

"Y-yes My Lord," Quinn said.

"I declare you Centurion of the Fourth Cohort," Jupiter said. "A cohort that will need some heavy reconstruction and discipline, from what I understand."

Hazel's heart started beating as fast as a drum and she smiled for Quinn, who looked in shock.

"I- thank you, my Lord."

"You have yourself to thank, Quintina Hunter, for your strength and intelligence." Jupiter said. "As for who your fellow centurion might be, the Olympian counsel has elected Thomas Rosenberg."

Tommy's eyes were wide with shock.

"Do you accept, Son of Victoria?" Jupiter asked.

Tommy looked at Piper.

"You won't be at Camp Jupiter, will you?" He asked quietly.

"No," she said. "I'm not made for the legion. But you'll love it. I know you will. Give it a try." She squeezed his hand encouragingly.

"Yes," Tommy said looking up.

Reyna and Jason actually looked relieved by this. Hazel guessed that it took some of the work load that they'd have when returning to Rome off of them.

"Pipes, Tommy dear, come here," Aphrodite said snapping her fingers and getting up.

They looked at each other, nearly in dread, before advancing towards the goddess.

"Okay, so I'm going to give you the talk."

"What?" Piper said immediately. Hazel's eyes popped open like quarters and everything inside her froze up.

"Not that talk sweetheart, the other talk. About your souls being interconnected."

Leo snorted and Hazel breathed again.

"So," she said drumming her fingers together. "Here's the deal. You've met a million times before, although it hasn't always ended… well. Sometimes you've both died. Sometimes you never met each other. Sometimes you were reincarnated as different species though my instructions to Hades were _very clear."_

The goddess shot him a look across the room.

"And in one shocking turn of events, Piper once killed Tommy."

Half of the crew snorted at that one.

"What in the Hades did I do that for?" Piper asked in horror.

"You were a trained assassin for Elizabeth I," Aphrodite said. "Gods, I hate Elizabeth the I- she could not appreciate a good romance. Good thing that era _at least _spit out Shakespeare. Anyways, it wasn't _you _who did it, Piper. You're never the same people when you're reborn. Never the same race, species, gender, personality… But there are a bunch of repetitive details that I can warn you about.

Number One, every time one of you gets hurt, the other will feel the repercussions. So Piper- you broke some ribs? Tommy got eaten by Asykas. Tommy broke his arm when he was seven; Piper had pneumonia three days later. Tommy tripped and burned himself on the campfire back in Germany? Piper twists her ankle in Detroit. That's how it works, darlings."

Piper and Tommy looked at each other like 'Styx'.

"You broke your arm when you were seven?"

"Yes, I'm double jointed on the right arm now." He said.

"Don't need to see it," Piper said.

"Didn't plan on showing you," Tommy said.

"Yes- so you two should try not to die either, because the highest lifespan for whoever survives after that is two years." Aphrodite said. "So Pipes? You can thank Tommy here for dodging the teeth."

"And speaking of the Camp in Germany…" The winged goddess, Victoria, spoke up.

A small group of people appeared in the middle of the throne room- about nine of them. The first one to spot Tommy yelled his name.

"_Thomas Rosenberg you're alive_!" She shouted, her English had a chirpy accent to it. And she charged him, jumping on him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"Dani!" He said hugging her back, not even thrown back. She was a girl with long dark hair and pale skin. She wore short jean shorts, tank tops and sandals.

"Tommy, Tommy!" A bunch of little kids yelled. Dani dropped to the ground and he was immediately swarmed by them. One little boy crawled onto his back like a koala, another stood on his shoes and held his arm, and he had a little girl at his waist.

He asked something in a language Hazel didn't know, one of the dozen he spoke, and they immediately replied with frantic nodding and what must mean 'yes'. He chatted with them and managed to pay attention to all three at once- and they were all begging for his attention. He was really good with kids.

The big guy with heavy set shoulders grabbed Tommy's spare forearm in the Roman salute, and another girl, one wearing a white hat with a black ribbon, gave him a hug, trying not to squish all the kids. The last guy just slapped him on the back and said something that made himself laugh, drawing a smile on Tommy's lips.

He turned towards the very confused demigods.

"This is my camp from Europe," he said. He was smiling like he couldn't believe his eyes. These were all people he didn't think he'd see again.

"The survivors, anyways," the girl with the hat said grimly.

Dani jabbed her in the side and said something to shut her up.

"Where _were _you guys?" Tommy asked.

The four teenagers groaned.

"Do you know how difficult it is to get four unaccompanied minors as well as five pep-squeaks across Europe?"

"Five minors and seven pep-squeaks," the strong guy said. "We only lost Marie-Pier in Amsterdam, Viktoria in Berlin and…"

"Stop it Captain Sunshine," Dani said. "We had a lot of trouble. The real question is 'where were we not_?'" _

"We didn't go to Spain," the little boy on Tommy's spoke up.

"Spain is lovely," Percy spoke up.

"That was rhetorical, Schmuel. Anyways, thank goodness that Dani can pickpocket and Karin can charmspeak, because I'm telling you…"

"Karin can charmspeak?" Tommy asked looking at the little girl at his waist. "No wonder you always had it your way at camp."

Karin smiled sweetly.

"'Daughter of Venus', the father tells us. 'No I will not take the twins back', he tells us. 'You came to Sweden for nothing', he tells us." The girl with the hat said crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"As you can see from Estefanìa's pleased face, we had our difficulties," Dani said. "But we made it to Venise. Eventually. My mother took us in and gave us the basement- she is so kind- she got everybody's paperwork done! It was fantastic, and Tommy let me tell you- Italian girls _are so gorgeous- _I thought it was just me, but no, you should come one day."

"What does your mother do?" Piper asked.

"She is a spy. Don't tell your government." Dani said.

"I'm glad you're all safe," Tommy said smiling and holding Karin tighter. "I didn't think I'd see any of you again."

"And we didn't think we'd see you alive again. Explain Rosenberg, you have five seconds, I just remembered that I'm mad at you." Dani said.

Tommy smiled. "It'll take more than five seconds, and I'd do better to explain somewhere else."

The goddess Vesta left her place by the fire to come speak to them. The European demigods immediately knelt, and Tommy made the kids drop down so they could kneel too.

"I am glad to see you alive," she said. "And I hope you will find a new home in America."

Their faces froze and the little kids clung right back to Tommy nervously.

"What?" Estefanìa asked

"There are two camps here; Greek and Roman. Both have their doors open to any demigod who comes." Vesta said kindly.

They all looked at each other.

"We've never been welcome in these camps," Dani said. "Historically we are made fun of and teased. Two of our little ones don't speak English."

"Dani, don't worry." Tommy said. "Kari and Lars can learn- they've picked up on Polish. I've met demigods from both camps and they're amazing people. See- that's Jason," he said pointing to the son of Jupiter, "and his partner Reyna. They lead the Roman camp. And Percy and Annabeth," he said pointing the other way, "do the same at the Greek camp. They're in San Francisco and New York."

The hyper teenage boy said something and Hazel only got the words "Greek" and "Roman", and Hazel assumed that he meant that nobody in their camp was both.

"That doesn't matter," Tommy said. "We can manage it."

None of them looked convinced. Tommy put Karin and Schmuel down, shooing Lars off of his feet.

"It'll be safer for the kids," he said softly.

The other teenagers looked at each other. That seemed a good example.

"We're not babies," a kid around ten years old said.

"I never said you were," Tommy said. "That doesn't mean safety is bad."

There was a short discussion in Spanish, then it switched to something that sounded like Italian, then German which Hazel had heard Tommy teach Piper before, then something Hazel just didn't know a thing about. They seemed to reach a conclusion.

"If there's room for us, we'll try." Dani said. "But if you separate us we are packing our bags and heading back to my mom's basement."

"There is always room," Jason said.

"You'll love camps." Percy promised.

They were sent down to earth, where apparently all activity was frozen until the crew and the leaders could get back down there to help the rebuilding efforts. The little kids looked upset, but Tommy promised something to them and shook the bolder seeming one, the little leader, on it.

"Leo Valdez," Jupiter called.

Leo stepped forwards.

"Your bravery while faced to Gaia was admirable. Is there any grant you wish to have?"

Leo thought for a second.

"Yeah," he said. "Once I graduate, I want to become an engineer. So if you give me university and so, because I doubt I'll be able to tap into any college fund existing, I'm good."

"I will assure it myself," Athena spoke up from her throne.

Jupiter nodded.

"Our final gift to you, demigods, is this.

The doors of death have been closed today, but so tightly so that it will be incredibly difficult for monsters to emerge with the same kind of power they have always had for another… twenty years or so. The gods are nor in the mood or state of power and mind to arrange the doors to fix this issue, nor do we want to. The next twenty years of your lives will be with fewer, and smaller monsters."

Frank grabbed Hazel's hand and she smiled at him. Safety. Twenty years. Twenty was a big number, and more years than a demigod knew what to do with. Actually, no. Hazel was pretty sure that she'd figure something out. After all; she could dream now. She could dream, and hope, and make plans and have nice things. She looked at Frank and he was smiling at her too.

"And now you should get out of Olympus," Jupiter said. "There are a few people waiting for you by the lobby downstairs- although we do suggest you try and clean off some of the blood."

* * *

><p><strong>Hi! So I know a lot of people were against Annabeth coming back to life because it would be too happily ever after, but I've always planned on her coming back. Seriously. Always. So I know it's somewhat cheesy, somehow big-wrapped-present-with-a-ribbon, but hey. My last parody of an RR book was a tragedy, and I wanted this one to be different.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>ANNONS!<strong>

annabeth523- Glad you liked it so much!

Guest- There are more chapters coming- details are for later. He bowed out of respect for Annabeth's mother, and because Annabeth wasn't there to bow herself.

Kayce- Glad you liked it!

Guest- Sorry about that.

Guest- And I didn't forget about that! Leo's love life is coming! Don't worry! I didn't forget and I won't pull some cheap trick on you! Seriously! You will meet a love interest of Leo's that actually works out.

Camib6- I do that... a lot... (Also if you still have your Fanpop account there's a forum where the story can be found in the club called The Fanfic- it's in the popular content)

loverofzisfanfic- I'm glad you liked it!

Me- Any happier with the story now? ;)


	110. XVI Quinn, Jason, Frank, Annabeth

**Happy American Thanksgiving! I'm using the holiday as an excuse to post the before-last chapter, so enjoy! (I'm posting tomorrow too)**

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>XVI<p>

Quinn

She sat on the edge of a circular golden fountain, her hand hovering over the water. Her head was perfectly clear for the first time in days. She was pretty sure that tonight, she'd have a real night of sleep as well. The thought made her happy. She'd finally be a regular girl. Well, as regular as you could be at Camp Jupiter. No- as regular as you could be when you were _a centurion. _

Her hand touched the water.

She'd have so much to deal with when she got back to Camp Jupiter. But at the same time there was a lot to look forward to.

She wasn't as shy anymore- maybe she'd make friends, and make herself known to the world. She wouldn't be haunted at night and she'd sleep decently- she could work on her running and swordplay. Cate was dead- she'd have to learn to be okay with that, and she'd have to learn to stand tall without her best friend by her side: and meet this boyfriend of hers.

She had plenty of questions inspired by the quest- so she'd have some research to do. She and Tommy would have to rebuild the Fourth Cohort basically from scratch- that wouldn't be easy with all the new recruits and spiteful veterans- and she'd have to teach him about the fort and the legion and how things worked, though he'd learn fairly quickly, she thought. She had so much to do, but it didn't seem like a daunting list anymore. Quinn was excited. She was excited for things to come- and that was exciting enough.

But one thing just couldn't seem to fit into that busy schedule.

Jedediah.

Her hand dipped into the water more as she came to a conclusion she wouldn't have expected from herself earlier.

Maybe that could wait. Quinn would much rather start a relationship- one that would be her first relationship, especially- when she was on a good base, when she was happy with herself as a person, and confident enough to be strong. And Jedediah might not wait that long; but Quinn had settled that as a base rule for things to be taken or left.

Now: she came first. As a person, she had to be ready to do things before she did them. It wasn't about getting pushed to do things, yelled at to be things, intimidated into fitting a certain profile or clogging a certain hole anymore.

She was going to build herself up to be who she wanted to be now, and for the first time it seemed as if she could do that.

Jason

By a fountain, he helped Reyna put the bandage under her eye and clean up. She kept still and told him about her time in Camp's dungeons, Octavian's murder, her fight with Joan, and she told him in what kind of shape the legion was.

He sat down next to her and pulled Reyna into a hug. She leaned against him.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"For what?"

"For leaving you alone, again, and especially to face that," he said. "You're claustrophobic and everything- _gods, _I feel horrible, and I've felt horrible for the last two months."

"Shut up Jason," Reyna said shaking her head. "You might be Saving Grace, but that doesn't mean you have to save me every single time. I can do that myself sometimes. I'm strong enough."

"I know that," Jason said. "I know that better than nearly anyone."

"You do," Reyna agreed. "And granted, I like having you close, and I think we go very well together." She took his hands. "But if you can't help it, you can't help it. And everything turned out okay, didn't it?"

Jason nodded, although he wasn't sure if he felt that way yet. He leaned in to kiss her, slipping one of his hands in her thick black hair.

She kissed him back.

Frank

He was walking through Olympus with Hazel and Leo. Hazel, who was going to live, and Leo, who was going to Leo on. He was glad they'd bothmade it. It seemed like they'd busted the odds and broke mathematical probabilities through the world.

Leo eventually slipped away to check out a statue that might be an automaton.

Frank was limping because of the leg, and he just felt incredibly imbalanced. He was feeling super clumsy and he was afraid that he'd topple and hit Hazel. That would be embarrassing- and also very typical of him.

No, he thought; after this quest he trusted himself more than that.

"So Hazel," he said. "You're going to get to live now."

She nodded. A tired smile drew itself on her face, and she pushed all of her hair away from her face. Hope filled her face.

"What are you planning on doing with your life?" He asked.

"First?" Hazel asked. She jumped on a low brick wall surrounding a flower garden, which gave her extra height.

"I think I want to kiss the bravest boy I know."

That apparently meant him, considering she leaned in.

"I'm not that brave," Frank said, their foreheads touching.

"You never tried to stop me from doing anything," Hazel said. "You always put yourself first in the line of fire. You lost a leg to stop two people from killing each other. And you were brave enough to hold my hand and watch me die. _That's _bravery."

She leaned in and kissed him.

Piper

Tommy zipped up his hoody after draping it over her shoulders.

"You look cold," he protested. Piper didn't put up a fuss. His hoody was warm and soft and it smelled like pine and fresh air, what she'd come to associate as him.

"This hoody is like Indiana Jones' hat. It survives everything." Piper said.

"That's why I want you to have it," Tommy said.

Piper grinned and bundled up her hands with the sleeves.

"It's not going to be easy being a country away." He said.

Piper nodded. "I think it'll be good for both of us, though. We're not the same, we've got different goals. I want to go back to school, you have a job, and you can help your family from Europe get settled in. Besides, we'll IM, and we've still got the bracelets. We'll still see each other as much as possible."

Tommy nodded and kissed her forehead. "I wasn't scared."

"Just one thing?" She asked.

"Yes?"

"You're going to have to let me lie to any guy who even _tries _flirting with me that I have a boyfriend who's going to beat them up if they don't leave me alone."

"You sure it's going to be a lie?" Tommy asked.

"You're as much of a pacifist as a demigod can possibly get," Piper said putting her arms around his neck.

"Ah but see, I'm very protective of my girlfriend. Maybe too much."

"No," she promised. "Just enough."

The word sent a tingle down Piper's spine. It was the first time he'd called her that. Maybe because now they were safe and sound, or at least as safe and sound as demigods could be, it felt okay to have a normal relationship. Not that they'd ever be normal.

Not that Piper would ever mind, she thought as she leaned against his chest.

Annabeth

She washed the last bit of blood off of Percy's ankle.

"That's better, Seaweed Brain." She said. The words rolled off her tongue familiarly even if she'd never expected to say them again. Even before she'd realised that she'd have to die for her plan to work, back on the beach of Troy with Odysseus.

Yeah; she'd known that she was going to die for a while.

"Do I fit in the standards of kiss-worthy now?" Percy asked.

"Well I can't seem to recall a time you didn't," Annabeth said standing up and letting him back her up against a wall, lean in, and kiss her. A shiver went down her spine and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Once they pulled away she rested her head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat. That steady beating would have been worth everything she'd done during that summer, even if Annabeth wouldn't have come back from the dead.

She owed her whole life to Josie. Josie who was snappy and touchy, Josie whose first reaction to two people's first kiss was to tell them to name their child Oliver, Josie the bravest daughter of Apollo Annabeth knew.

"Are we back at where we were before I disappeared?" Percy asked.

"And where is that?" Annabeth asked.

"When we both sneak out of our cabins at night and kiss on the canoe lake for two hours tonight because screw the harpies that's what."

Annabeth smiled. "Oh yes. We most definitely are."

Eventually she excused herself to see Malcolm and Quinn. Important as her boyfriend was, her little siblings were just as big a priority.

Malcolm and Nyssa were having a moment (-she had _always _known that this would happen, she had totally called it) so she went to find Quinn, who sat near a fountain.

"This is a crazy theory," she said. Her little sister looked up. The eyes sparkling behind her glasses were clearer than usual. The voices and curses would plague Quinn no longer. "But I'm thinking that maybe you won't need your glasses anymore. You'll sleep so much better now; I think that your whole body will feel better about everything."

"That would take so much getting used to." Quinn said. "But in a way, it'd be practical."

Annabeth sat down next to her and Quinn lied down, her head on Annabeth's lap.

"I am going to be so much sorer tomorrow morning," she said. Annabeth smiled.

"Look on the bright side. Tomorrow you'll have had a good night's sleep in your own bed; you won't have spent the days before fighting for your life, and you'll have a shiny new medal on your armour."

Quinn smiled a bit. She was exhausted, quite obviously.

"I'm sorry I scared you," Annabeth said. "I didn't mean to die."

"It's alright," Quinn said. "I'm just glad you're back. And I'm glad you and Percy are okay."

Annabeth smiled. "Me too, Quinn. And I want you to know, before we go down there and see what happens, that even if I'm going to be staying in New York while you run the cohort, I'm still your big sister, okay? And I still care, and you will still and always will matter to me."

Quinn smiled. "You are my best sister."

"You too, Quinn." Annabeth said smiling.

"So we'll stay in touch?"

"If I don't hear from you on a weekly basis, I'm coming to 'Frisco myself and searching the fort," Annabeth said.

Quinn smiled. "Do you think I'll get to visit you at camp?"

"Definitely, once we rebuild it all." Annabeth said. "You'll love the cabin. There are so many things on Daedalus' computer that just look _so much better _on the SmartBoard."

"You guys have a SmartBoard?"

"There are little to no things that are not in that cabin," someone said. It was Leo. "That scares me terribly."

"As it should," Annabeth nodded.

"Anyways, we're all heading downstairs because we all look presentable enough."

Quinn got up and they found the others, standing near the elevator. Jason grinned at them, and Quinn lost Annabeth to Percy's arms.

"Let's go down guys," he said. "We are officially _done." _

* * *

><p><strong>Annons!<strong>

**lovlygirl**- Leo will address that issue next chapter. And there will be an epilogue

Kayce- The voices dissapeared when Gaia did. And the next chapter will be all about that. I'm glad to hear from you again!

Guest- YOU ARE GENIUS, MY FRIEND. THAT WOULD ROCK.

ruru- O_O THANK YOU!

Guest- I don't believe in abandoning stories.

anon- I'm glad you liked it!

goodjob- Yeah, I probably should, but at this point I'm trying to wrap things up.

annabeth523- ;D

kptwistepghost- Glad you liked it!

Me- Bah, you shouldn't cry anymore.

universalpowa- I posted!


	111. XVII All

**Okay guys: so this is the last chapter of the story, but please don't write long paragraphs of goodbye because there's a whole epilogue coming up soon. Like: Tuesday, soon. **

**Thank you for all the reviews, I know this week was a bomb of stuff that I posted. Today is mostly a chapter of "this is how it ended, here are loose ends that are wrapped up, and this is how this happens". Final touches, okay? And some character interactions. It's a bunch of little scenes, so prepare for many PoV changes. In other news: I finished NaNoWriMo today! I'm at 50 625 words! So enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p>XVII<p>

Piper

So the cutest thing in the world happened when the doors opened up.

The elevator ride from Olympus to earth was strangely quick, but during it Reyna, Nyssa and Malcolm were sent back to the battlefields on earth. It was panicky at first, but it was soon okay. Tommy leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

"Reminds you of the giant?" Piper asked putting a hand on his arm. He nodded, still not opening his eyes.

It was quick enough, and the second the doors were opened Piper heard someone scream out Percy's name and Percy ran out of the elevator.

"Percy Jackson I will bubble-wrap you, lock you in your room, make the SWAT team guard your door and put the whole building under lock down- you are _never leaving the house again! _Oh my darling, thank the gods..._"_

His mom had her arms wrapped around his neck, and she had her face buried in the crook of his neck, standing on her toes because he was so much taller and holding onto him as tightly as she could. Percy hugged her back.

"Mom, mom, don't do that," Percy said. "Don't cry."

"I was _so _worried." She said. She raised her head and her eyes were watery. "What did they feed you, you've grown and you're so much bigger now- oh my gods…" She hugged him again, Percy's stepfather Paul standing right behind her, his shoulders slack like he'd just started breathing again.

"Red meat," Leo said. "Does that to a guy. Crazy Romans."

That's when Piper spotted someone else who got up when the door opened, looking anxiously towards the elevator. She knew he was looking for her.

"Dad!" She said. She heard the same thing from a bunch of the others. Quinn and Annabeth were out of the elevator ASAP as well.

She jumped up and wrapped her arms around her dad's neck.

"Oh God, Piper," he said hugging her back. Piper was back to being seven years old, when any problem should be reported to Dad because Dad was the highest authority and Dad could fix anything and Dad made everything okay.

Suddenly everything snapped back to "you are sixteen and you are a demigod" and she let go.

"Oh my gods you know about Olympus and the gods and the giants and the mother of all quests." She said in horror.

"Don't worry, don't worry." He said his hands on her shoulders to calm her down. "I came here clueless, but it was explained to me by the nicest people I think you can meet."

Piper looked at the lobby. As well as Sally and Paul, Quinn's dad was there and they were chatting in French. Or at least she assumed it was her father, because she was cuddled up against his chest and he was holding onto her. Annabeth's dad was there, and Annabeth was bombing him with questions and he provided answers before bombing her back. Her clothes were dripping over the ground.

"You're not..?" Piper asked.

"Confused? Mind blown? A little bit. But if this whole… this whole world of gods and monsters and whatnot is part of you, then it's fine by me." He said pulling her back into a hug.

Maybe her dad _was _cut out for all this mythological drama. Maybe he just had to be introduced to it the right way. Kind-of like the Aphrodite Cabin and swordplay.

She hugged him back. "I love you Dad."

"I love you too Piper."

She backed up. "I need you to meet someone. Well, everyone in this room, but… well, someone especially."

She turned to the back of the room where people were awkwardly shuffling their feet.

"Tom," she said. He looked up and nodded before walking over.

Jason

"You should sit down, man. It's not good for you to wear yourself out like this." Jason said. "Go easy on yourself, you just lost a leg and it's going to feel really bad for the next little while."

"I'm cool," Frank said.

"Do it." Hazel demanded. Frank pulled up a chair and lowered himself down, obviously more comfortable.

"Well, this is it dudes," Leo said. "We're the outcasts. We're always gonna be in the background like this."

"Don't talk like that," Hazel said.

"It's true," Leo shrugged.

"Leo! Jason!" Someone called right that moment. They saw Sally Jackson, who'd let go of Percy, with her arms open. "Thank the gods you two are safe, get over here! And you two must be Frank and Hazel."

And so Leo's words practically died as Sally hugged them.

Quinn

She hadn't seen her dad since she'd enrolled in the legion, she'd only exchanged letters and letters were nothing like seeing a person or holding them or hearing them laugh or all three at a time.

She also got to speak French.

"You came all the way from Thurso," she said.

"Quinn, I would have come all the way from Japan." He said holding onto her so tightly it should've been uncomfortable. But since it was her Dad it never could be.

Annabeth

"You're soaking wet," Dad said after another long hug. "Are you cold? What in the world happened?"

"Oh!" Percy said. He left Sally's side for half a second, took Annabeth's two hands suddenly drying out her hair and clothes, kissed her on the cheek, and ran off to join his mom again. Their parents smiled to each other and dad turned back to her.

"There's no easy way to say this…" Annabeth said. "I… I've kind of been… legally dead up until half an hour ago."

The look was all that was to be expected.

Frank

"Hey- did I mention I have food for you guys?" Mrs Jack- no, Sally, asked.

All demigod eyes were on her.

"Like… food?" Frank asked.

"Yes sweetheart, food."

"Where?" Percy asked. They all tried not to look like savages.

"There's a bag under that flag, sweetheart." Sally said, with a smile on her face like she would alwaysbe amused by the appetites of demigods.

It was like everyone had _abort mission, abort mission _going through their head as an order because it was everyone around the food bag, trying not to look like savages but also trying to get some damn food. Leo got there first so he got to play Santa Claus with food.

Hazel curled up, legs crossed against the wall and munched on half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Frank smiled; certain he'd never seen anything cuter.

He got roast beef and mustard and a water bottle. He offered her a sip first because she should keep hydrated even if they weren't fighting anymore. She put the sandwich on her knees and took the biggest sip in mankind's history.

"Are you doing okay?" Frank asked.

"Yeah, but what's that thing in Piper's dad's pocket that keeps buzzing while he keeps ignoring it." Hazel asked, looking legitimately concerned.

"A Blackberry," Frank said. "His work's trying to get a hold of him, but he's like 'nuh-uh' because he's busy with his daughter and grilling said daughter's boyfriend."

Tommy was trying to act casual but he looked pretty nervous. Piper was leaning against him and he had an arm around her waist, which mustn't have helped much. Frank tried to send him positive karmatic energy because gods knew the poor boy would need it. Then he remembered who he'd have to deal with if Hazel's folks decided to do that, and he kept some for himself.

Hazel smiled and handed his water bottle back. "I hope he passes the boyfriend test."

"Yeah, we all do. We _just_ got out of a war, after all, no need for a second."

Hazel laughed and took another bite of her sandwich.

Percy had a blue cookie and for some reason this was just the best thing for him; and he kept showing it off to everyone and muttering "Best. Day. Ever." Sally stayed close to him, watching him like a hawk- which was easy to understand.

"Okay dude, we're getting concerned." Frank said. "What is this whole 'blue food' thing?"

Percy grinned and looked at his mom.

"So remember when I told you guys my mom was badass on the ship?"

Quinn

She explained everything to her Dad. Running through Gaia's lair, the old labyrinth, to bargaining with the ghost, battling Arachne… and yes, the voices.

He looked at her with those bright interested eyes as she talked. They were serious now, not twinkling like when he'd seen her come off the elevator.

"This has always happened?" He asked.

"I don't know, since I can remember." Quinn said.

"You've never been a big sleeper," he said pushing her hair behind her ear. Quinn caught it in hers.

"Don't feel guilty. Nobody knew. Nobody ever found out, I never said a word." Quinn said. "You're a great father."

"Debatable," he mused.

"No," Quinn said. "Definitely not."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Not if you took in this random baby that appeared at your doorstep and gave up university and started working in a bakery you hated for said baby."

"Quinn," her dad said cautiously. "You're not guilty about that are you?"

Quinn said nothing.

He pushed her hair behind her other ear.

"I said that I'd have come to Japan to meet you here earlier, didn't I? The list of things I'd do for you is much longer, _ma belle. _What I did is nothing; I'd do anything."

Hazel

"Gather 'round kiddies!" Leo called. "It's story time!"

"Leo don't make me do this." Piper said.

"You don't understand Pipes, I've got to." Leo said. "Jason, come back me up in case she bites. _Anyways, _Piper here is the most genetically appropriate person to talk; also she has superpowers, so she'll just explain everything that's happened on the ship for y'all."

Piper ducked her head back and sighed.

"Okay, so basically we have this huge mother-of-all ships that's docked somewhere around here right now, but it also flies."

"Pardon?" Frederic Chase asked.

"It flies."

"How?" Michel Hunter asked.

"I don't know for the life of me," Piper said. "But what we do is that we load up on this ship and go do epic things."

The same kind of IM screens as on Olympus popped up.

"Yes, televisions, perfect." Piper said slipping away and grabbing more food.

The screen showed one of the battles that Jason, Hazel and Percy had fought. They were going up against a giant that wasn't one of Gaia's children, all three in perpetual motion, and communicating battle plans and ideas by screaming.

Percy was willing waves to beat against the giant, which somewhat unbalanced him. Cyclones were boiling on the nearby river, Percy steering it around and causing the river to go crazy. The giant was swatting one away like it was an annoying toy. Jason and Hazel were hovering around the giant's face like bumblebees.

Someone yelled. Jason dropped Hazel who kept her arms tucked around her head.

"CATCH HER!" Jason yelled. Percy ran, tripping over his feet.

As she fell columns of sand blew up around her and Jason rose up into the air higher than ever, lightning bolts raining down. Percy caught Hazel, the momentum bringing them both down to the ground, Hazel shrieking in surprise. When Hazel landed the earth spiked from where she landed and through the giant into the river, a wave stood waiting like welcoming arms. They folded around him like a blanket and dragged him down.

Percy and Hazel both looked up. Hazel smashed back against the earth. Percy put a hand on her hair and watched until the last of the giant had disappeared.

Jason plummeted down, exhausted.

Everyone in the lobby looked at each other in absolute terror. Something about the elements going wild was terrifying.

At least they didn't have to worry about the earth anymore.

Annabeth

She and Quinn were looking at each other like _what have we done? _

They'd just introduced their dads to each other after story time, when Piper had revealed that they were sisters.

Annabeth's dad had brought out his lame "what is Batman's favourite element? Sodium. Nanananananana" joke and Michel, Quinn's dad, had actually laughed, so that was impending sign one.

Now they were talking about the Allied Invasion of Normandy in WWII and for some reason two ex-boyfriends and two children of the goddess of wisdom were having the biggest collective brain fart about when it had happened.

"1944, I think." Annabeth's dad said.

"I always keep thinking of 1942," Michel said.

"I can't think straight," Annabeth said shaking her head. "I'm probably wrong on this one." She hoped it wouldn't take too long before her brain started straightening itself out. Then again she'd just died, so she should be gentle on herself. She shooed away Percy who was coming at her holding a blue cookie and pointing to it in amazement.

"I think it was late in the war," Quinn frowned. "It was a Tuesday."

"Yes, that it was," Annabeth's dad nodded.

"It wasn't in 1942," Hazel piped up.

"It wasn't?"

"No, I don't remember it." Hazel said. She was so brutally honest and innocent as she said it; it looked like a horror movie scene. Hazel would kill them all with axes late that night.

Dad and Michel looked at her with eyes that were both confused and scared of saying what they were thinking out loud.

"Papa, this is Hazel," Quinn said. "She was born in the late 1920's but she's really the best thing that happened to the twenty-first century and please don't kill her with questions."

Percy

"Percy?"

He turned around and saw Paul. He smiled and hugged his stepfather.

"Yeah, I didn't forget you." He said. Paul hugged him back.

"I'm really happy you're safe." Paul said. "I haven't seen your Mom this happy in months, and we haven't been so relieved for just as long."

"She's feeding demigods by the dozen," Percy shrugged.

"She has you back," Paul corrected.

Piper

Suddenly her legs were freezing cold and touching each other and she wasn't wearing jeans or pants for the second time in two days.

She looked down and saw that all of her clothes had "magically" and "mysteriously" changed into a black dress with a bare back, and a shawl over her shoulders. She was wearing gladiator sandals that laced up and she groaned.

"Mom," she complained.

The shawl changed colour as a reply.

Annabeth

That's when the gods came down.

Yeah…

This really could have gone either way, but Annabeth tried to stay focused on the conversation that was going on between her and Quinn's dads. They'd left for ten minutes for food, and come back to find them in the exact same political conversation as before, something about the history of Egypt.

They were arguing over a particular date of something that had happened with Napoleon- Annabeth really didn't know, her brain was broken for now. Quinn was muttering something about mathematics and science being up her alley. Athena walked by.

"Napoleon had 35 000 soldiers; Michel you are thinking of Alexander and Frederic, you of Darius I." She said without even stopping, her only movements to touch her daughters' shoulders.

They both just watched her walk off.

"She's just always right, isn't she?" Michel said.

"Afraid so," Frederic nodded.

Piper

She was grabbing more food (again) when she heard her name being yelled out. The door of the building was open and the most unlikely person to be happy to see Piper stood there. Drew, wearing battle armour that made her look a lot bigger in an awkward kind of way, her hair tangled down her bag.

Maybe it was stress or worry or some greater instinct, but Piper ran towards her and they collapsed in hugs.

"Thank the gods you're okay, I'm so glad you're safe…" She said. "Oh gods, I really thought…"

Drew was shaking.

"Drew- Drew- what's wrong? Why are you..?"

Drew pulled away. She looked totally at loss.

"Hey, talk to me," Piper said putting a hand on Drew's shoulder.

She shook her head.

"We lost all the girls," she said.

"What?" Piper asked.

"All the girls of Cabin 8… I turned around for five seconds to help Emery because he'd gotten –you don't need to know- and Freya was in charge of the line, and this dragon came out of nowhere…" Drew was shaking her head as if she'd just woken up from a nightmare she rather forget.

"But- the gods are bringing the dead back to life," Piper said. "Leo's here and he drowned- it'll be okay."

"Are the gods going to heal them of the injuries they died from at the same time?" Drew asked.

Piper faltered. No. No, probably not. They'd said bring back to life, not health. And gods were always specific.

"There's your loophole," Drew said by judging her face. "Leo drowned- not much injury that can come out of that. But if someone died with a stab to the heart they're going to come back to life in that body which is still stabbed. We're still going to lose most of our people, then."

Piper suddenly felt dizzy.

"Emma? Lacy? Katharine? Sophia?" She asked.

"Isabella, Ashleigh, Nicole, Madison- everyone, Piper." Drew said. She knotted her hands in her hair. "Gods, how did I let it..?"

"No Drew," she said. "Don't- don't do that. Don't make yourself guilty. The guys are okay?"

"Mostly, I think." Drew said.

"There," Piper said drawing her sister in a hug. "It's okay."

She didn't bring up that she should've been there in the first place.

"I'm sorry about most of the things I've ever told you," Drew said. "Very few of them were nice. I just… You don't need to know my whole sob story, but I get spooked when someone couldn't be charmspoken. When I was a kid… it used to mean that bad things would happen at home. And I thought you were so much like Silena when I first saw you, and we'd just found out that she'd been allied with Kronos, and I wasn't ready to forgive her for keeping a secret from the cabin, even if she was a hero…

"Shh," Piper said holding Drew closer. "It… It really doesn't matter. Everything we fought about was so stupid anyways. And I wasn't a saint myself. I owe you an equal apology. Did you tell the other girls?"

"Yes, I told them the day you left." Drew said. "I really am trying hard not to be such a control freak and to forget, I just…"

"Then you're as forgiven as you'll get in Eight."

For a second they just hugged, and Piper thought of something her mother had told her between two battles. And she remembered a poster in Drew's bed area. _It's_ _too bad you and Drew can't get along. Really a shame. You'd sing the best song. _At first she'd thought her mother was being, well, her mother. But maybe… Well, it was a day of small miracles.

"I'm limited/ Just look at me- I'm limited/ And just look at you/ You could do all I couldn't do, Glinda/ So now it's up to you/ For both of us- now it's up to you…" She started humming.

For a while Drew seemed confused. Then she sung back.

"I've heard it said/ That people come into our lives for a reason/ Bringing something we must learn/ And we are led/ To those who help us most to grow/ If we let them/ And we help them in return."

For a while it was just that. Standing in a lobby, holding each other, singing old songs from musicals and radio, people looking at them because of the power of their united voices… It sounded sappy, but their voices were fantastic together. It felt strangely peaceful. Piper had never heard singing during a way, she'd only heard singing to appease sleepy babies and inspire normal bystanders left and right.

It felt like maybe Piper was wrapping up more than one fight.

Frank

Leo examined his prosthetic leg, turning it around, his nimble fingers examining every square inch of it. Frank kept looking from it to the stump. It was the weirdest thing ever.

"Yeah man, I think I can make this breathe fire." Leo nodded.

"That's not what I asked," Frank said. "I asked if you could fix it if it ever broke."

"Yeah, I guess I can make that happen too. I could also patent it so that it'd change _with _you when you transformed. How's that for Valdez convenience?"

"It won't break," a voice said. They looked up from where they sat, leaning on the wall, and saw Vulcan and Mars. Hephaestus and Mars. Whatever.

"Vulcan built it," Mars said. "I test-tried it while fighting the Huns a few hundred years back. Maybe thousands, I forget. Either way, it works fine."

"Good to know," Frank said.

"We also wanted you to know that what your mothers said about you… it's true." Vulcan said.

"The growing thing?" Leo asked.

"We're proud of you guys too." Mars said.

"Thanks Dads," they both said.

Percy

Poseidon gave Percy a heart attack when he came to talk to him, interrupting a conversation with Piper, Paul and Mom about how he always got Annabeth in trouble on the boat- most of which he worked hard to deny. He was hyper vigilant after the morning of Extreme Stunts 0, some of which were still playing on IM screens. His mom was putting a lot of efforts into making sure she didn't see a single thing.

"Sorry to borrow you, Percy," he said very quickly. "I just need to know if there's anything you want me to change about the cabin."

"You're going to fix it?" Percy asked.

"You want a place to sleep tonight, do you not?" Poseidon asked.

"Yes please," Percy said. "If that fountain in the corner could work again, that'd be cool."

"You broke that?" Poseidon asked.

"Yeah, these shadows were coming out of it and- it doesn't matter," Percy said shaking his head.

"Fix the fountain, got it. Enjoy your day."

"Thanks Dad, nice fighting with you."

He got a squeezed shoulder before his dad left him to talk to his Mom again, Jason and Hazel at his side. They were basically just teasing each other about the morning's fight.

"Don't worry Mrs. Jackson, he got a paper cut but I kissed it all better." Hazel said.

Percy fluffed her hair. "Baby cousin," he said, because she couldn't deny that. She frowned and elbowed him. Jason laughed and she elbowed him really hard too. They were going to have too much fun with this.

Frank

He heard someone yell out "PERCY!"

He turned around and saw a satyr in some kind of nature armour run towards Percy.

"Hey G-man," Percy said with a bright face. He wasn't expecting it, but he got a tackle-hug.

"Oh- hugs are good- hugs are very good, I'm in a hugging mood." Percy said surprised but grinning.

"We were so worried! Annabeth was out of her mind, camp was in frenzy, we haven't known where you've been for the last month!"

"I won't do it again, don't worry. I've already been warned." Percy said.

That's when Frank looked at the others who'd shown up. It looked like most of the hostages who were part of the extended family. A girl with short black hair and the most startling electric eyes ran towards Jason, calling his name. Piper jumped a brother of hers. Hazel ran away from him and towards Nico who looked surprised, but happy, to see her alive. He and Leo had explained to the others about how the statue of Hazel would be taking her place in the Underworld and Leo had made it and Frank had brought it to life. Annabeth's father turned towards her and let her know that her little brother was with his mother.

And his Grandmother was there.

That old bird- making Frank think she was dead… He'd never hugged her more tightly though.

"Fai Zhang!" She called gripping him tightly. "You did not die!"

"No, Grandmother."

"I was sure that the stick…"

"The stick is somewhere in the Mediterranean sea right now," Frank said remembering Hazel's horror as she realised that it'd fallen during the Argo II's collision with the icebergs. "That was an accident."

She didn't even call him a clumsy ox. "Then you can be sure that it is safe for now. It is in the element of your great-great-great-great-"

"Neptune."

"Yes." Grandmother agreed.

"I- I saw Mom, Grandmother."

She frowned. "How? Did you get yourself killed you clumsy ox?"

There it was.

"No!" Frank said. "Nothing like that!"

He swung his prosthetic leg back and tried really hard to make sure she didn't notice.

"She came back for a few minutes, to talk. On Olympus. It was my reward."

"Mmm," Grandmother said putting a hand on Frank's cheek and pushing her fingers through his short hair. "And how is she?"

"She's okay, I think. Well, she's dead…"

"No really, Fai?" Grandmother said.

Gambling, sarcasm, what next? Did the old woman have a tattoo?

She hugged him around the waist.

"I am so proud to have you as my grandson. And I don't know if your scatterbrain mother remembered to tell you one last time; but she was the proudest mother in the world." She said. "You have brought honour to the family, full circle. But even more importantly you have brought yourself back home."

Percy

Quinn and her father came to see Sally. He spoke with a heavy French accent that just sounded like the coolest thing of the day to Percy, but he decided to shut up about that.

"Quinn told me that you knew Gabriel Ugliano," he said awkwardly- although Percy knew for a fact that they'd talked plenty of times before the demigods had arrived in the lobby.

Oh right. He and Quinn had agreed to break it to their parents.

Mom's eyes darted towards Percy.

He'd forgotten the heads up.

"Yes, a while ago. But he's dead now." Mom said quickly.

"Petrified by a gorgon, wasn't it?" Michel asked looking at Quinn who nodded. Mom blushed.

"Don't blush Mom, he had it coming." Percy said.

"I have to agree with your son," Michel nodded.

"I'm sorry- how do you know him?" Mom asked.

"He was my brother." Michel said like he wasn't proud of it.

Mom became livid.

"I wouldn't have made the connection," she stuttered.

"I'd hope not," Michel said. "Our last names aren't even the same. See, our father left before I was even born- he wasn't a reliable type. Dragged our mother to Québéc and abandoned her there for a younger woman. The usual sleazy slug. It may not justify or excuse any of Gabriel's actions, but I hope you can see where he came from a bit. And I apologise for those same things."

"That's nice of you," she said. Her shoulders dropped, like she'd just resolved an issue she'd been battling out for a while. Percy knew that she was still trying to figure out if she was a murderer or not because of the trick with the gorgon's head and that she had lost sleep over it, because his mom was an infinitely nice person.

He put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her back as the conversation changed to a happier subject.

Piper

She heard a familiar voice that made her freak. When she turned back she heard a sharp slapping sound and saw on one of the IM screens the scene in Troy where Paris slapped her when she got gutsy.

Drew turned to face her, mouth dropped in an 'O'.

"What in Olympus and Hades is that?"

"They thought I was Helen of Troy. Long story." Piper said. "Unfortunately I am not Helen of Troy and I am not patient and I am not good at shutting up."

"Girl, I hope you slapped him back."

"No, Tommy got to him first," Piper said looking around the room before finding Tommy who was thumb wrestling with Hazel.

"Tommy?" Drew asked; her eyebrows slanted meaningfully.

"Your Aphrodite is showing," Piper said.

"But it's right isn't it?"

"Oh it is _so _right."

Percy

He was watching Piper and trying not to laugh.

"No- I've got this," she said using her hands a lot. "Hazel, him and him are cousins," she said pointing to Jason and Percy. "And Leo and Frank are cousins because of their fathers… Reyna and Frank are step-siblings, and Annabeth and Quinn are sisters. Because of their moms and dads… And technically Jason's their uncle..?"

"So where do you fit in Piper?" Percy asked innocently.

Piper looked at the floor as if she'd just been informed that gravity was caused by a giant chameleon living under their feet.

"Stop hurting me, Jackson." She said holding her head in her hands. "Gods- let's just say that we met at a party that's so much simpler."

Piper

She was explaining Troy to Sally and Paul because Frank wasn't doing it justice ("so then they thought Piper was Helen and they were wrong- like, duh") when her clothes changed again. She was wearing a deep blue, triangle-shaped dress with gold flats.

"Gods damn it, that's enough woman." Piper said to nobody in particular, looking up at the ceiling.

"Pipes, she's just doing it to tease you, let it go." Tommy said.

"No, she'd be doing it either way; this is how I got claimed- except the neckline was lower since my dad wasn't around." She said.

"Then stop stressing out," Tommy said holding her closer. "You look fantastic anyways."

Percy

He had his arm around Annabeth and he was talking to Dr Chase, trying to be an acceptable boyfriend. Had he not been through enough stress that day?

Annabeth tapped his arm as he tried to explain something that he wasn't even sure about, and he looked at the door. A man in a wheelchair had just wheeled himself in. He was wearing a button-up shirt and slacks. He had brown hair and a cannula up his nose. He looked around nervously, looking for someone obviously. Percy was about to excuse himself to see if he could help, but Tommy beat him to it. Actually, Tommy kind of sunk to his knees in front of the man and hugged him, getting held in return. The man started laughing.

Piper was next to them that second, smiling brightly and basically humming with excitement.

"That's his dad," she said.

"What?" Percy said. "I thought his dad was dead."

"He never found out," Piper said. "His dad had some really bad cancer when he left for camp so he assumed the worst."

"He's still alive," Annabeth smiled. Her grip on Percy's hand tightened and he had to smile too. Tommy just wasn't so alone anymore, and that was some of the best news of the day.

Piper

Tommy came to get her in the crowd, his eyes clear and bright and his smile brighter than Piper had ever seen it. She smiled when she saw him coming.

"Come on, he wants to meet you." Tommy said holding out his hand. Piper took it and let him drag her to see his Dad who wheeled himself forwards.

Tommy said something in German and Piper recognised two words, "Papa" and "girlfriend".

"I am happy to meet you," he said in understandable but slightly croaky English, holding his hand out to Piper.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Mr Rosenberg." Piper said with a smile. She couldn't believe that she was meeting her boyfriend's dad- it all felt too real, too normal… then again, so did the number "twenty" as in "twenty years of safety to live a normal life".

"You are from here?" He asked.

"Not from New York, no," she said. "I was raised in Oklahoma, on a Cherokee reserve, and in California. Did you come here from Munich, sir?"

"No, no," he said. "I am in America for clinical trial for medicine, in LA also, as matter of fact. They have big facility there. I just got dream that Thomas be in New York and I took a plane and came here. Not easy in wheelchair, but I did it."

"That's such a coincidence," Piper said, not believing it. Tommy had just found both his father and the kids who'd been his brothers and sisters since he was nine all in a day. She could see hope and ideas building up inside him. Whatever his plans and dreams were, she's gladly follow.

"No such thing," Tommy said putting an arm around her waist.

Piper's Dad put a hand on her shoulder.

"Mr McLean," Tommy said. "This is my father, Hans Rosenberg. Papa, _dies its _Piper _Vater_."

They shook hands.

"You were in movie?" Hans asked.

"Yes," Piper's dad said after a moment.

"Check Mate, it is called. People try and make me watch it all the time, I play chess."

"Sorry," her Dad said.

Hans laughed. The movie was notoriously bad: one of her dad's first movies. The one that had gotten him famous though, so at least there was that.

Suddenly Piper tripped on nothing and Tommy had to catch her to keep her from falling. She was wearing gold stiletto heels, and a deep green dress.

"My God," she sighed kicking off her heals. "I'm sorry, I'll be right back," she said picking them up.

She found Aphrodite chatting with Percy, and she walked off. She passed by Paul and Sally.

"Sally, someone who looked exactly like you just passed by." He said sounding confused.

Piper caught her, and she dropped the heals in front of her.

"I demand jeans, sneakers, and Tommy's hoody." She said.

Aphrodite laughed. "Oh, I knew it wouldn't last," she said. She snapped her fingers and Piper was dressed like herself again.

"Thank you," she said.

Aphrodite smiled. "You look more beautiful anyways," she said. "You were on fire in France, sweet."

"Thanks Mom," Piper smiled.

When she got back to the group, they were chatting about how they were both in LA and eventually it just happened that they were talking about how they should check out an exhibit there. Tommy whispered something in French in Piper's ear.

"_Bien, si nos pères sont occupés…_"

Well, if our dads are busy…

Piper smacked him on the arm and smiled at him.

She drifted off and talked with a few people along the way, and got to stand with Jason and Leo in the back of the room.

"Things have changed a lot since we met," Jason said looking at everything going on.

"Yeah. You know your last name, I got hotter, and Piper's in a committed romantic relationship because of _twu wuv_." Leo summed up.

Piper smacked him

"For the record Leo, everyone in this room is, or is heading there." She frowned. "Except for you: out of all people."

Leo shrugged.

"When I lost my mom I thought I needed some normalcy in my life. The usual: grades, social life, girlfriend, hobby you excel at… I used to think I needed a girlfriend to be happy. To have someone close, you know? But I found something better; just having best friends makes up for anything I could have with a chick." Leo said.

"Especially if you'd refer to her as a 'chick'," Piper said.

Jason put his arms around both of them.

"What I meant to say was that even if everything's changed, like, drastically, you two are still the best friends I've had. And if you guys ever need a thing, I'll be right there in a heartbeat."

"So, say, if I'm craving bacon in the middle of the night… again…" Leo said. "And, like…"

"Except for you. I'm gonna need twenty people to sign a sheet that agrees that you need help and detail the exact reason why before I show up."

That's when the elevator door dinged open and Julia came out, totting a wagon which held an armless talking statue.

"Jason! Percy!" The little said on sight, dropping the wagon's handle and running for a hug from Jason.

"Hey! Don't make me drag you back here Julia, come back here!" Terminus shouted from his wagon. "Give me a hand, Julia!"

Judging by her father's face, the mist was handling Terminus' cover-up in a pretty unique way.

"Hey, you," Jason said lifting her up in the air, making her giggle. "How are you doing?"

"Good!" She said. She'd lost another tooth- on the bottom this time. She had her hair in pigtails and she was wearing a skirt and a t-shirt with a daisy on it. That girl was cute as a button. "I'm starting school this year and I can do two cartwheels in a row and the Tooth Fairy gave me denarii for this tooth," she said although the last part was fuzzy because pointing to said tooth led to fingers in the mouth.

"Wow, you've been as busy as us." Percy said.

Julia nodded seriously and there were chuckles across the lobby.

"Busy ignoring me!" Terminus called.

"Yeah and I decided what I want to be when I grow up," she said.

"You don't want to be Percy Jackson anymore?" Percy asked, pretending to be hurt.

"No, she's starting school this year, she's becoming intelligent, weren't you listening?" Frank asked.

"What is it, Julia?" Jason asked ignoring the two.

"I want to be a Heroes of Olympus." Julia said very seriously, her arms around Jason's neck to hold herself steady.

"Good choice," Leo said clapping.

"Well, it's a hard job, Julia." Percy said looking around the lobby, his eyes bright. "But I think it's the best thing that could happen to you."

* * *

><p><strong> The End<strong>

** November 7th 20**** 10:23 PM**

**November 23 2012 9:50 PM**

** Forever scripting,**

** HecateA **

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><p><strong>Next Tuesday: Epilogue<strong>


	112. Epilogue

**Thanks for all of this week's fabulous reviews, but I can't help but feel like I've got to explain how the epilogue is going to work before you all read this [late] chapter. **

**Okay, so my writing is always cut with PM's on , Googles, meltdowns, and discussions on character development and such. There are a lot of people who've reviewed a lot, but some of them I can turn to and be like "QUICK! Hypothetically speaking if Percy and Annabeth were going to have a child what would they argue about for names?" and get an answer.**

**So I realized that I had to thank those people, and so each character in the epilogue is dedicated to one of these people- with the exception of Leo Valdez who gets two because... well, Leo Valdez. Please don't be offended if you're not up there, I love you completely from your head to your toes too and you're amazing and I appreciate the fact that you're still reading this 44 page forum or 111 chapter story. **

**That said; the epilogue is going to work like a timeline. There'll be usually two characters per chapter and the chapter will be their timeline with little scenes. **

**Now to thank the people who don't have chapters dedicated to them: I'll take questions for the characters in the reviews, and the previous chapters' characters will answer. So for example: if the chapter order is Percy and Annabeth followed by Jason and Reyna, character questions for Percabeth will be answered in Jason and Reyna.**

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p><strong>Two Months Later<strong>

**Dedicated to wombat-of-awesome**

* * *

><p>Greeks<p>

This is the story of how Leo Valdez suffered a heart attack.

He was minding his own business, loitering outside Goode High School with Percy and Annabeth. He should technically have used his bracelet (a little present from the gods that he'd been allowed to keep) to teleport back to Camp ages ago, but he hadn't. He'd decided to be a kind soul and wait for Piper that one day. Also he owed Dani Milano money that he didn't have, so he was trying to delay a cruel fate that undoubtedly awaited him once he returned.

Annabeth was trying to help Percy understand his homework on genetics, and Leo was lying on the picnic table's other bench, fiddling around with gears and wires and batteries, and wondering when the torture would stop.

In Percy's defence, he was trying really hard. The deal that had been made with the school was that he'd be given all the credits for last year's courses that he hadn't been able to attend or finish, as long as he passed everything with an 80% average this year. The world was trying to make a miracle-worker out of Annabeth Chase.

"Leo, can you get over here and help." Annabeth asked.

"I'm not taking biology," he said sitting up.

"We're doing math now," Percy said it like a peasant would say "Now I'm being tortured for witchcraft."

"I can't understand this," Annabeth said tapping an equation with the eraser of her pencil. These words wouldn't be heard from Annabeth Chase's mouth if today weren't the two month anniversary of her death. Technically Leo's death too… Ditto Josie Esposito. And Gaia. Yes, definitely Gaia. Anyways, since that day sometimes Annabeth's brain would spin out of control and she'd get headaches for a little while, but they were becoming less frequent and more manageable. A bit like Hazel used to have black outs, except not as extreme. Leo had evaded that plague, thankfully. He'd retained his former glory fully.

He examined the number and tried to explain it. Percy eventually got "3x+6" as an answer, so they went with that.

That's when Leo suffered his heart attack. He was jumped on from behind and he screamed "MURDER" while someone screamed "BOO".

He turned around and saw Emilie Guerette, laughing at him.

Okay, Leo would try not to ramble but it was always hard because there were too many pretty things about Em to explain. She was wearing purple sweat pants and a black tank top, white and black striped gloves on her hands, skater shoes on her feet, and a snapback on her head. Emily was short and lean, and she had long golden brown hair that fell over her shoulders, framing her face. Her eyes, the colour of nutmeg, had the same sparkle as sunlight on snow or the sea. Her smile was playful and teasing, like there was always a chance that she'd steal your food right out of your hands or jump on you from behind- which were two habits of hers along with skateboarding and legal graffiti and doodling things that ended up looking like de Vinci's early works.

"For the love of all things good woman, are you trying to kill me or are you trying to kill me?" Leo said.

Em laughed.

"None of the above," she said sitting down on the table, shaking off her bag and tossing it onto the ground next to her skateboard.

"None of the above, my butt." Leo muttered crossing his arms.

She laughed again. "Oh I'm sorry. Did I offend Mr Valdez?"

"Yes, you did." Leo huffed. "Or what's left of him anyways."

"Okay, now you're exaggerating." Annabeth said.

"You're on her side?" Leo asked scandalised.

"Dude, we're always on her side," Percy said.

"The perks of being Em," she said. A car honked in the parking lot.

"Oh- right, my bros are waiting- I only wanted to say goodbye very quickly."

"And you ended up trying to murder me how..?"

"Calm yourself, peasant," Emily said.

"Bye Em," Annabeth smiled.

"Later," Percy said, back to his homework.

She ruffled his hair before jumping off the table, picking up her stuff and running off.

"Dude, ask her out." Percy said. "This was funny for the first twenty thousand hours you both spent flirting: now it's just frustrating."

Piper saved him from replying by walking out of the school that moment. Leo bellowed out a line from Wicked and she made a face.

"Did they paint you green yet?" Percy asked.

"Costumes only kick in in, like, April or something." Piper said.

She'd been dragged into auditioning for the school musical because one of Goode's 'rising talents' didn't want to be the only 'good performer' in the play because art school scouts were going to come check it out to see her perform or something. Leo dared to say that Piper would probably take the cake from her. She said she was having fun though, and she and Drew would break into song as practise all over camp.

"Besides, it's not that funny that I'm going to get painted green from head to toe," Piper said scrunching her nose.

"Dude, it's hilarious. Your boyfriend admitted this to us. Your argument is invalid."

"Should we head back to camp then?" Annabeth asked.

"You guys were waiting for me?" Piper said. "Oh, no- I'm not even going to camp."

"Well where the heck are you going?" Leo asked.

"Camp J," she said. "I haven't seen Reyna in forever and Chiron thinks I had a concussion yesterday after all, so I should tell Tommy."

"In case he gets a paper cut," Percy said.

"That's a great idea, I'm sure Reyna's really getting tired of the paperwork. I'll come." Annabeth said. She'd been given Josie's old bracelet.

"What about homework?" Percy asked pointing at his notebooks.

"You've got Leo there to help you," Annabeth said kissing his cheek before she and Piper disappeared.

Percy didn't look thrilled about that.

"If it helps, I could still kiss you every time you get the right answer too." Leo shrugged.

Romans

"Praetor work, my butt." She heard.

Jason pulled away, and Reyna turned to see Piper and Annabeth standing in the doorframe, grinning.

"See, most people knock." Jason said.

"Do we look like most people?" Piper said. "No. So good morning."

"Good morning," Reyna said.

"How was school?" Jason asked. The time difference between San Francisco and New York was surprisingly easy to keep track of.

"We've come to steal Reyna." Annabeth said. "You sounded stressed out in the last IM and we miss you, so…"

"Grace, you're in charge of my paperwork," Reyna said closing a notebook, declaring a few hours off for herself.

"All of it?" He asked.

"Oh did you really just, after eight months of..?" Reyna asked putting a hand on her hip.

"Nope," Jason said turning back to the paperwork and concentrating on it far too much for a guy who had just been kissed. Especially by his standards. "Nope, I did not just complain about workloads. Nope, definitely not me, never."

"I have to go check on the fourth again. See how devilish they are today. Come on, let's walk around the fort." The praetor said, tapping her friends on the arms.

Muster and breakfast were long over so everyone was everywhere.

An obstacle course had been installed all around the fort by the Third Cohort, still led by Britt and Brady who had been honoured greatly after the war. Reyna picked out familiar faces; Jedediah Adams, Josh Ayano, Connor Stoll. They were fooling around, dancing a song from a Korean YouTube hit or something. They froze when they saw her and straightened up. Reyna turned a blind eye.

"How's Connor doing?" Annabeth asked quietly, waving back at the son of Hermes.

"Better," Reyna said. "For what that's worth… He's with good people, and they're keeping an eye on him."

They waited for a group of three to pass by their obstacle of swerving around cones while dragging a wheelbarrow full of imperial gold.

In the fields of Mars the second cohort was practising eagle drops, so they stayed away.

"Are you keeping a good eye on them?" Annabeth asked.

Reyna nodded solemnly.

"They may not have been led by Octavian or Joan, but they did follow."

"They're still claiming innocence? To _you, _out of all people? Are they really?" Piper asked, sounding offended on Reyna's behalf.

Reyna shrugged it off, but there was still a scar above her right eye that wouldn't fade.

The fifth cohort was a little more off in the fields of Mars.

"You're sitting down, Centurion Zhang," Reyna called. Frank turned around and grinned crookedly.

"Yeah. Turns out; if you don't wear one of those fancy socks with your prosthetic, you get a rash." The leg was lying next to him, along with a pair of crutches that he still needed to get around effectively. "Who knew?"

"Everyone," Annabeth said. "That's why we keep telling you to do it, you stubborn boy."

Frank shrugged and turned back towards his cohort.

"Keep at it guys!"

He turned back towards them.

"I get to sit down and be the finish line," he said.

The game looked like British bulldog with swords. Frank had to call off again.

"Bethany, you have to use the sword! Hazel, no fancy earth magic!"

He turned back.

"Go see a healer before lunch," Reyna said. "We'll leave you to your training."

"Say hi to Jackson for me," Frank said. "How are people doing anyways?"

"We're fine," Annabeth said.

"Percy passed a math test with a B+. Sally's invited us all for pizza. I'm assuming she meant you guys too." Piper said.

"When?" Frank asked.

"Friday," Piper said.

"I don't think I'll be able to make it," Reyna said. "Jason owes me supper in New Rome."

"Well fudge, can't call off that when he actually does it." Piper said.

"I'll try to show up," Frank said. "But it depends on the leg."

"I thought you'd agreed to call it the not-leg," Hazel said, popping up from the earth and scaring everyone out of their wits.

"No earth magic!" Frank said.

"You gonna send me back?" Hazel asked, hugging Piper.

"Yes," Frank said.

She hugged Annabeth and made a face before going back.

"Tough love," Annabeth commentated.

"I love her outside of training," Frank said. "I'm so not in the mood to give the senate another reason to hate me."

"Are they still hating on the not-leg?" Piper asked not looking impressed.

"Yeah," Frank said. "But you know, they'll shut up eventually."

"There's no way I'm letting you lose your job, don't you worry." Reyna said. He was the first Centurion she'd proclaimed, and he was doing a better job than most centurions of the last ten years. "Speaking of which, you have three girls who are coming at you after allying themselves against the 'its'."

"Oh, see you later." Annabeth said. "Friday?"

"Hope so," Frank shrugged.

They went through temple hill. A scrawny boy with dark hair and eyes was sitting on the steps of Apollo's temple. He waved to Reyna and asked something in Spanish.

"He's in the principia," Reyna answered. Hugo Castillo Vega nodded and headed back into the temple.

"I had no idea you spoke Spanish, I'm still shocked." Piper said.

"Puerto Ricans do that sometimes," Reyna said.

"Is he at least trying to learn English or Latin?" Annabeth asked. "It can't be good for him to not be able to talk to people."

"Oh, he's got Latin down, and he can speak English enough to get around. He just likes Spanish better."

"Latin?" Piper frowned.

"Part of the blessing Apollo gave him to become augur was the language," Reyna explained. "So we think."

"Well I'm glad you found someone to replace Octavian. Also someone who's a little less… difficult." Annabeth said, picking her words wisely.

"Yeah, and who hasn't got a crush on me." Reyna said crinkling her nose. She wasn't the gushy type, and part of her was still disgusted that Octavian had given the senate hell, staged a coup and been Joan's instrument to become praetor because of a _crush. _She didn't care if he was dead, that didn't wipe all of the bad things you'd done during your life off the history books and the hearts and minds of other people, so it wouldn't clear your name.

Jason was still working on helping her forgive.

"Well, we don't know that…" Piper teased.

"No, we do." Annabeth said. "Wasn't the first thing he asked Jason was where Josie was? Even though he'd just paid for a meal?"

"Yeah," Reyna said pushing her head again. "He's still really upset, but he's happier in the fort than he was homeless in Spain. He's hanging out with Jedediah Adams, Connor, Josh, Hazel and Quinn. The police was after him and he was sick."

"Thank the gods Jason went to find him right away," Piper said. "Poor guy… I'll have to talk to him, but he doesn't seem very keen to talk."

"No, he's not." Reyna said. "But he speaks French really well, so maybe he'd like you."

They found the fourth cohort. The two centurions were pacing back and forth, lines of soldiers doing push-ups.

"Ouch," Piper said. "What did they do?"

"Impossible to tell," Reyna said shaking her head, visions of reports and complaints and files floating through her mind. "What _haven't _they done? That cohort's a mess- after being put through Joan and then the few months where they were kings of the world before Malcolm pulled his coup. The legionnaires steal from each other, they put itching powder in armour, they tease Quinn about spiders, they switch weapons with unbalanced or blunt blades…"

"That's low," Annabeth said protectively. Reyna recognised the angry-big-sister tone from Hylla.

Reyna shrugged. "Half of the original cohort is fired already. The newbies are being forwarded to the fourth and they like Quinn and Tommy fine. Things are going to get better. Oh, we've been spotted."

Tommy smiled at Piper for a discreet second, and she smiled back. He turned back to his soldiers.

"Fifteen," he counted. "Sixteen, seventeen."

Quinn came by and smiled at them.

"Hi," she said. Her voice was quiet, but not shy anymore. She had new glasses; sleep had returned to her, and her eyesight had improved- though, as she put it, she was still "born slightly blind". Her hair was pulled back so none of it hid her face. She held her head high naturally now, not by a Roman instinct, and the bags under her eyes were gone, making the greys shine even more. Reyna had never seen someone change so suddenly.

"Good morning," Annabeth said. "How you doing, Quinn?"

"I'm fine," she said. "Tommy's getting really tired of their Nazi bull, and so am I."

"That's what this is about?" Reyna asked.

"They are _not _making those jokes…" Piper said shocked.

Quinn took a deep breath, eyes rolled up. "Some of them are as aware and educated as their feet. Some of them are just nasty. Either way, we get Centurion Adolf a few times a week. There's not much to do since they refuse to take anything in. We're hoping that group punishment will help them smarten up amongst themselves."

"We've had another similar case with Cate Amjad on teasing based on nationality," Reyna recalled, based on a confession from Joan's co-Centurion after the war. "Start submitting names to the praetors; we'll handle it."

"Alright," Quinn nodded.

"That's not a push-up Armstrong," Tommy scolded. His face was hard.

"I'll stick around the fort until training is over," Piper decided, her eyes on him.

"It'll be good for him," Quinn said quietly.

Someone said something in Latin: "This how they train the Nazis?"

Quinn's shoulders slouched.

"Hang in there, Quinn." Annabeth said.

"I have to go," Quinn said.

"Me too," Reyna said making an executive decision.

She marched forwards before Tommy could reply.

"What did you just say to your Centurion?" Reyna asked. A few people other than the legionnaire she was going to put through a bad ten minutes dropped to their knees and looked up.

"I wasn't talking to any of you," Reyna said. "Keep going."

Tommy snapped back to reality and started counting again.

"You. Get up."

Jeremy Melville got up and eyed Reyna, trying to look bitter and angsty and tough, but obviously not expecting Reyna to be there.

She would make him pee his armour.

"What did you just say to your Centurion?" She asked again. "Please, I would love to hear every single word. And if I don't get it from you, then I'm sure he'll like to let me know himself."

Melville chewed on his lip.

"Did you say something to your Centurion?" Reyna snapped at him.

"Yes."

"Yes who, 'yes Jupiter'?" Reyna asked.

"Yes Ma'am," he said. It would do.

"Well there's your first problem. He's an officer who is much senior then you are, and you therefore have no business talking back to him in any way shape or form once he has given an order, unless you are permitted to do so- am I clear?"

"Yes."

"Yes Ceres? I'm your praetor, Melville, start treating your superiors with respect or your superiors will find other places where your attitude might fit in better- outside of Roman land."

"Yes Ma'am." He said.

"Good. Now what did you tell your praetor?" Reyna said.

He didn't talk; he just stood there shaking in his boots.

"What did you tell your praetor?" Reyna said word by word.

Melville repeated what he'd said.

"Is that a valid comment that is true?" Reyna asked.

"No."

"No Juno?"

"No Ma'am."

"Is that a joke that is funny?"

"No Ma'am."

"Is that a joke that is ethically correct?"

"No Ma'am."

"Is that a comment Centurion Rosenberg deserved?"

"No Ma'am."

"Mmm- funny you say that. Because usually those are pretty good signs that you should shut up because your opinion is stereotypical, false, and unnecessary in the legion's functioning. Why did you address your Centurion in that way?" Reyna asked.

He didn't say anything.

"I asked you why you addressed your Centurion like that." She said again. He looked pretty scared now.

"I- I don't know."

"Well I don't know either, so maybe Praetor Grace will be able to help up figure it out back in the Principia, what do you think?" Reyna turned to Tommy. He nodded.

"Maybe he'll fess up about the tarantula while he's at it." He said casually.

Melville's eyes popped up.

"I'm looking forward to it," she said imagining that it had something to do with playing with Quinn's war scars- which just seemed lower to Reyna than anything else.

"This applies to all of you," Reyna said. "It is unacceptable for a cohort to behave so badly despite its centurions' expertise that a praetor is asked to routinely check-up on its progress, am I understood?"

"Yes." Came up like a choir.

"Am I Venus?" Reyna said.

"Yes Ma'am."

"Thank you. Anybody else I should take with me?"

Tommy and Quinn consulted with a glance.

"Gordon, get up." Quinn said. "Justin, you too."

Two guys looked like "what the heck?" as they got up, mouths opened and eyes opened wide.

"Don't pull those faces. If I'm pretty sure of what you did, then you have no reason to be surprised at all." Reyna said. "The least you can do is keeping whatever honour you have left."

They straightened up.

She turned towards Piper and Annabeth whose eyes were wide as coins.

"I'll meet you at the city borders in a few minutes," Reyna said. They listened to her and walked off. She told the disrupted legionnaires to follow her, instructed Tommy to finish the push-ups, and led them off.

"The first one to protest gets stable cleaning as a surplus to whatever punishment the praetors will see fit after consultation, am I clear?" Reyna said.

"Yes Ma'am." They replied.

She had them wait outside the principia and she went back inside, Jason leaning over paperwork, biting on his lips in concentration.

"Jason," she said. He looked up.

"Time for you to play good cop. I think I accidentally completely covered the bad."

"What happened, who was it?" He asked.

By the time she's sorted that out and found Piper and Annabeth, they were chatting with Terminus who was complaining about having lost Julia and being empty-handed as far as assistants went. Piper was clearly doing her best to swallow any comment.

When they saw her, Annabeth hissed like a cat.

"Tell me about it," Piper smiled. "But good on you."

"I want my legion to run smoothly, and the fourth cohort isn't in my good books," Reyna shrugged.

"It's fine Rey, they had it coming. What's Jason doing?"

"Playing good cop. Grilling them again. We'll talk about it later and figure out what to do- in the meantime they'll be banned for training."

"Like a day off?" Piper frowned.

"It's incredibly dishonourable." Reyna said. "You two are _so _clearly Greek…"

"Hey," Annabeth said elbowing her. Reyna smiled.

"Come on, let's wander New Rome," she said. She could use a day off, and she was ready to take one with her best friends right then. Work as praetor was easier now that Jason was back and the senate was tamer. But they'd always find reasons to complain- an amputee and a guy who had come out basically out of the blue as a centurion, the smaller children living in the fort because they'd followed Tommy from Europe (Jason was a strong advocate for them), the way the Greeks could just pop in and out of the land, trying to blame the death toll –all caused by injury- on faulty or incompetent Greek healers, how their praetors were absent once a month for a day to keep relations with the Greeks strong, the new rules that she and Jason were trying to put in place about a praetorian guard who would be in charge of making sure the praetors didn't turn into a tyrant…

But Reyna had decided long ago that she'd always be there to shut them up and do the right thing for the fort as a whole. And with Jason with her, with Percy and Annabeth back in New York, she felt like she could do anything.

"I'll take your weapons, young ladies- and Praetor Bell, of course." Terminus said. "Come no, hand them over. No, not there- _there, _pay attention to where I'm pointing!" Terminus chastised Piper, who bit her tongue even harder.

Of course, some things would never change.

* * *

><p><strong>Annons<strong>

**(who by the way were awesome this week, so thanks a tone guys!)**

AWESOMENESS- No, that would require me dying. Like, painfully in front of a computer.

Lauren- Hi! I actually don't have a personal facebook, so creating a page would feel really weird. My Tumblr is a good place to look for updates and a list of fanfiction by subject (if you don't mind looking through a lot of other stuff)

Frobisher Bay- That's a really pretty song! And the choir I was listening to was fantastic!

annabeth523- I had to change up my style a bit, you know? So yes, less death.

You are amazing- Hi! Thanks a lot for your review, it was super touching! And for me, there's no such thing as a holiday from writing. But I won't be writing a big story like this for another little while.

Lover of this fa- Yeah, they had to be mushy, sorry. They just thought they were all going to die.

Leia- Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it I can't- I... The epilogue has a whole chapter about minor characters, so you'll find some Cate and Connor there.

selenagomez5802- Yeah, like Emilie

Dancer girl- First) thank you for your review, second) let me love you, three) DFTBA

I don't think that Jason had no personality in LH, I think he was so lost he didn't know what to do or how to act. Plus he did have somewhat of a personality- loyal, responsible, mature, experienced, caring (maybe too much), a people person...

I love the kind of chemistry Children of the Big Three can have with each other. Like, I ship them all as bros. Arachne was dragged in because someone complained that my plot was nothing like the real Mark of Athena (..?) but I liked it a lot, so in it went.

Thank you!

Guest- Yeah, I suppose so, but he was under shock and a lot of things were going on around him. He grew up a little, I suppose.

ForeverYoung- :P


	113. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase

**Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase**

* * *

><p><strong>Dedicated to Firestrike22 and Innoverse<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>18<strong>

They both graduated from Goode High School

Percy got two A's on the last report card of his life, and only one C.

Annabeth had straight A's, of course.

She was accepted in a prestigious university a few hours from New York, and Percy stayed behind to study at NYU and handle Camp's sword fighting class.

Sally Jackson Blofis' first book was published: "Mightier than the Sword"

She released three more books and a series based on Camp Half-Blood before her death, but used the Egyptian gods to protect identities.

**22**

Percy graduated from NYU with a Bachelor's Degree in social work.

He joined the New York Police Department, where he could intervene with half-bloods in legal trouble and did for the rest of his life.

**25 **

Annabeth became an architect. She quickly got a job at a prestigious firm where she'd have to climb her way up, and also did private commissions and contest entries.

**26**

Percy "got his schist together" as Jason called it and proposed to Annabeth.

She didn't say yes.

She just kissed him.

They married in June of the next year.

Leo performed the ceremony, because why not, and he had a degree from the internet.

_" "Five," Jason said._

_"Ten."_

_"Fifteen."_

_"Twenty." _

_"Twenty five."_

_ Those calls came from Tommy, Grover, Frank and Leo. _

_"Tom, you betting any higher?" Jason asked._

_"I'm a med student, I'm nearly broke." He said, hands up. _

_"Same," Frank said regrettably._

_Leo's hands shot up in victory. "It's on, Grace. You've got to give me twenty five if Rachel Elizabeth Dare _does _"burst out into prophecy during the ceremony."_

_"You guys are seriously not helping," Percy said. "I'm nervous enough as it is."_

_"Yeah, we've got a bet on that too." Frank said. But Tommy actually put money down for that one." _

**27**

_"They sat on the floor of the baby room which was starting to look like a baby room, with a bowl of popcorn on their knees- though Annabeth was hogging. But if Percy made the mistake to bring that up, he was going down very quickly._

_"I still like Isabelle," Percy said._

_"No, there's an Isabelle _everywhere." _Annabeth complained._

_"Maybe that won't be a bad thing? I mean, we don't want her to stick out if she turns out to be ultra-godly or something." _

_"Still, we can do better than that. And not Brooklyn either."_

_"You liked it fine the other day," he said._

_"Yeah, but she'll be Brooklyn from Manhattan. There is no way I'm going to deal with her coming home crying because we gave her a name that opened the door up for every bully out there. I still maintain that Josephine is cute."_

_"That's from a book."_

_"Okay, fine: how about Alexandria."_

_"That's a place in Egypt, no?"_

_"Oh my gods Seaweed Brain- the history goes further than that." She said elbowing him. _

_"What if she's not brilliant though? Like, I'm just saying, there's a faint possibility that she doesn't care about Egypt." Percy said. _

_For a while they just shut up and looked through the window and saw the snow falling. It was January 5th, and they had to get their Styx together and find a name in the next two months. _

_"Cassandra!" Annabeth said out of the blue, taking his arm._

_"What?" Percy said. "Like, the Cassandra from the myths?"_

_"Yes, why not?" Annabeth said. "It's beautiful. Cassandra Jackson," she said._

_"But it just looks like this family's got good name-following karma, and the Cassandra in the stories has a horrible life." _

_"Oh, come on Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said. "Why don't we let our baby write her own story?" She snuggled up closer. "I think we did a good job with that freedom."_

Cassandra Josie Chase-Jackson was born on February 7th

She was the sassiest thing ever to hit the planet.

**30**

Cassandra started seeing through the mist, which became a pretty big problem at daycare.

Sally was diagnosed with breast cancer.

This resulted in half of the world's demigods attending a walk fundraising research wearing pink battle armour.

**33**

Percy got a promotion and became a detective

**35**

Paul passed away.

**37**

That year, two of Annabeth's designs were used to build the United States' Embassy in Berlin, and the National American Museum of Anthropology.

She was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, often called the Nobel Peace Prize of architecture, for the later.

**39**

Cassandra was given the option to join the legion, which she nearly did to be with her best friend- a certain Aidan- but in the end she wanted to keep going to school and so she stayed at Camp during the summers.

**40**

Frederic Chase passed away.

**41**

Annabeth designed a very ancient looking university building in California.

She was awarded the Richard H Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture.

**43**

A promotion was offered to Annabeth.

She would become the manager of the company she worked for.

She refused. She said she'd rather design buildings than manage people designing buildings.

That was the final stamp of approval that her fatal flaw was gone for good.

**44**

Sally passed away.

**45**

Cassandra went to New Rome U and studied to become a surgeon

**47**

Annabeth passed away after getting attacked from behind while she was at a conference in Chicago.

**54**

Percy was hurt and killed on the job. He was shot in the old Achille's heel, where the spot was not a trigger for death as it once was, but very weak.

* * *

><p><strong>Next chapter: Jason Grace and Reyna Bell<strong>


	114. Jason Grace and Reyna

**Hey guys! I hope you're having a gorgeous week and if not I wish to you that the rest of it will be. **

**SPECIAL ATTENTION: dudes, I lost the master list for what part of the epilogue I'm dedicating to who. Seriously. I'm trying to go through all of my PM's to find the conversations where all of this was settled, but I would really appreciate PM's from those of you who know that they have a bit dedicated to them. Thanks in advance for your cooperation dudes, and I apologise for my mistake. (Whoever had the Reyna and Jason dedications, I'll edit your names to this ASAP)**

**Don't forget to ask questions, they are fun to answer, and here's your chapter!**

* * *

><p><strong>Jason Grace and Reyna Bell<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Dedicated to I am Thalia daughter of Zeus and Wonderstruck Pen<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>17<strong>

They founded the Veteran's Legion in New Rome, a bureau which dealt with the legion's veterans and assured their mental health and general wellbeing, in prevision of all the demigods who would be retiring and moving to New Rome after two consecutive years of devastating war.

**18**

Jason and Reyna founded the Praetorian Guard.

They were a group of elite handpicked demigods and legacies –both in New Rome and Camp Half-Blood.

The Oath of the Praetorian Guard

I solemnly swear on the River Styx and on the Earth that I will without bias or prejudice remove from power any praetor of New Rome if he or she

i) Was not appointed to aforementioned power by the people of Rome

ii) Has broken Roman or American law

iii) Shows signs of prejudice or bias in his or her behaviour, comments, choices

[Regardless this bias be to a race, religion, genre of demigods, ichor quota, gender, sexual preference, philosophy, and so forth]

iv) Does not hold the best interest of New Rome, the Roman Legion, Olympus, America and Western Civilization as a whole at heart

v) Puts the legion in considerable danger on more than two occasions

vi) Has gotten more than one (1, I) warning of any of the aforementioned clauses but has a) not changed his behaviour, b) committed another offence

vii) Tries or shows interest in destroying, complicating, or ending the work and organisation of the Praetorian Guard

**19**

They fought the senate and finally got Greek demigods accepted into New Rome.

It was very unusual for Greeks to live there however, since Greek demigods tended to be more free and all-over-the-place than the Romans, and many Roman traditions were still respected.

Ancient Greek was an obligatory course in New Rome's curriculum

**20**

They retired from their work as praetors

Jason enrolled in law school at San Francisco, using his bracelet from Gaia's war to make the trip from New Rome every day.

His summers were spent as an intern with senators and congressmen.

Reyna didn't care much for academics and long-term world-changing jobs.

She didn't join the army because of Hylla's unspoken revulsion of it after their father died at war.

She started training to become a police officer.

**21**

Reyna became a certified police officer in New Rome, where training was quick for legionnaires.

**22**

Jason and Reyna were made members of the Praetorian Guard

**25**

Jason became a certified lawyer and practised in San Francisco, as well as cases in New Rome when needed.

Reyna and Jason got married in December of that year, in New Rome. Specifically not in June as to annoy Juno- Reyna's only opinion in the matter.

Leo was disappointed that he could not perform the ceremony because they were officials of proconsular status in the Roman world.

_Reyna brushed her fiery orange veil over her shoulder, along with her hair before kneeling by the fireplace. She was moving rather well considering she was wearing a dress that was much, much different than the regal toga she was used to. Like, white and fitting and strapless, with golden beading along the hem and waist and genuinely a dress. Jason handed her the torch and she held his hand as she dipped it in. A cheer went up and people clapped._

_"I'm still so confused by Roman weddings," Percy said. "Like, what the Hades is going on half of the time? Reyna's lit torches and built fires before."_

_"And I can do it better than her," Leo nodded._

_"Dude, even we don't understand it." Frank said. Dakota nodded though he was staring at a guy wearing a red suit longingly._

_"No, it makes sense…" Tommy said_

_Percy cut him off. "At least the cake is good." _

_Since Annabeth was a bridesmaid and he was hanging out with the best men (had he mentioned how big these weddings were obligated to be? HUGE that's what), he didn't get elbowed for it. _

**27**

Aidan Halcyon Grace was born on August 19th

Percy said that they should have gotten him a better birthday present, though he appreciated the thought.

Some serious damage control was done to make sure the two aunts weren't disappointed. Thalia and Hylla insisted that it was actually a girl until they met their nephew and fell in love.

**29**

Reyna became Deputy Chief of New Rome's Investigative Subdivision

**36**

New Rome managed to sneak itself a seat in the US senate, and Jason Grace became the first Roman senator to be elected there.

He managed to come home every night to his family, which was his self-imposed restriction in life.

**38**

Reyna became the most decorated police officer in New Rome's history.

That wasn't even counting her honours as praetors.

**39 **

Aidan enrolled in the legion at minimum age: 12 years old

He was offered the first and second cohorts, but chose the fifth who had not yet sealed the deal as the best cohort of the legion.

Needless to say: after two Graces and a Jackson, that was that.

**40**

Reyna became the youngest Chief of Police New Rome had ever seen.

She said that although "Captain" took some getting used to as opposed to "Praetor". "Ma'am" was good and familiar, though.

**43**

Aidan was running for praetor when he was involved in a horrible accident with a hydra/Manticore hybrid created by Echidna in Iowa: a terrain which the Greeks and Romans were still arguing over. He was treated at Camp Half-Blood, but soon in San Francisco when it was seen how badly things truly were.

He lost his sight in both eyes and the trauma his brain suffered gave him a form of epilepsy, for which he was honourably discharged from the legion.

_The front door slammed shut._

_"It's me," she yelled._

_"Hey Cassie, come on in." Aunt Reyna called. She and Mom were at the kitchen table, ignoring the newspapers in front of them and stirring coffees. _

_"How was class, love?" Mom called._

_"Fine," she said dropping her apartment key onto the counter and emptying her army jacket's pockets. "That kid in Cabin Seven is improving loads and I think I put him in his place. Is Aidan up?"_

_"No," Aunt Reyna said. "We haven't seen him yet." _

_"Oh, okay." Cass said. She walked through the dining room and climbed the stairs leading to the top floor._

_ She knocked on the door._

_"Aidan you better have a shirt on because I'm coming in," she said. Nothing, so she pushed it open with her shoulder. She ripped open the curtains, useless considering how bad Aidan's vision now was._

_"Aidan Grace get out of bed now and gods help you if you're not wearing pants."_

_ He rolled onto his side. Shirtless, but he appeared to be wearing sweatpants. Close enough. _

_"Cass, is that you?"_

_"Yes. Good morning Aidan Grace. Now get your _podex _out of bed or I'm kicking it all the way downstairs."_

_"Why?" He asked. "What's the point? I don't have anything to do or anywhere to be…" _

_"Yes you do, we're going out for breakfast." Cassandra said matter-of-factly. "You and me."_

_"I really don't want to go," he said._

_"Too bad, you have to." Cass said._

_"Why?" _

_"Because you're just really lost right now and I can't deal with my best friend losing his eyes, his job, _and _himself."_

_"Cass, I'm not!" He said right away, defensive as any self-respecting legacy of Bellona._

_"Really? Because the Aidan Grace I know and cherish doesn't lie in bed awake after nine, even if he has nothing to do, because he's withering and scared and clueless about the unknown. My Aidan Grace –the one I made a blood oath as a ten-year-old to always be best friends with- wouldn't let life swallow him whole and spit him back out on the sidewalk."_

_"Oh gods, that's exactly what I'm doing isn't it?" He said coming to his senses- like any legacy of Jupiter when faced with a legacy of Poseidon._

_"Afraid so. So find a clean shirt and I'm giving you the option to remain in your sweatpants or put on jeans." _

_"How generous," Aidan said sarcastically._

_"Better take advantage that I'm in this kind of mood." Cass said. "Which, by the way, I won't be in if you take more than one minute to come back downstairs." _

* * *

><p><em>When Cass marched back downstairs Reyna and Annabeth turned to look.<em>

_"He'll be down in a minute," she casually informed them. _

_"What did you do to the poor boy?" Annabeth asked._

_"I gave him a reality check." Cass said. _

_"Help yourself to some coffee, then," Reyna said looking up from the newspaper. _

_"I thought we were going for breakfast?" Aidan called down. Reyna saw the tip of a white cane from the top of the stairs. No way was he using it without being told to… _

_ She smiled and he came in the kitchen, fully dressed, holding his cane, sunglasses clipped to the collar of a clean black polo. He wore jeans; his blond hair longer than it had been for six years was actually somewhat tame. _

_"Hey Mom. Aunt Annabeth?"_

_"I'm here, sweetheart." She said. Cass tugged the zipper of her jacket up to her throat. Reyna was pretty sure she realised what kind of a miracle she'd just pulled off as well as they did._

_"Come on Grace," she said taking his arm and leading him off._

_"Later," he called, letting himself get led. The door closed behind them. _

_ Annabeth smiled at Reyna._

_"You look like you're going to cry," Annabeth said gently._

_"I've been waiting three months for him to accept what's going and feel okay about it," Reyna said. "Yeah, maybe I will." _

**44**

_He heard jingles coming closer and took a random punch, making contact with the kickball. He heard Helen bark and run after the kickball when it came swinging back to her. This was easy entertainment for the labroador, and Aidan didn't mind the exercise at all._

_"I don't know, Cass." He sighed._

_"Oh, come on. It's not rocket science- which I suggest you don't study if you can't handle this decision."_

_"Don't mock me."_

_"It'll do you some good." Cass said. "Make you part of something, give you something to do." _

_He heard Helen bark before she made contact with the kickball and the jingle bells got closer to him again. _

_"And become what? I'm not going to go to New Rome U for no reason"_

_"I don't know. A teacher? That's what you said when you were a kid." _

_"I don't know anymore, Cass."_

_ He hit the kickball._

_"Well I do. So there are flyers that I put on your bed, and you can call me so I can write out your name and address anytime." Cass said._

_"You did not," Aidan said though he knew fairly well that there was no way Cass _hadn't_._

_"Shocker, I did something good for you. I know. You'd think I'd have exhausted my surprise."_

_Aidan caught the ball instead of throwing it back to Helen._

_"Yeah, I'd love to be a teacher," he said. "It'd be the greatest thing. But how in the world am I going to do that now? When you can't watch a class full of kids, or correct texts, or read questions in textbooks…"_

_"Bull," Cass said. "You put bells on your doors and on the chair legs so that you know when someone comes in and out, someone can dictate quizzes and assignments for you to correct, you can trust on the peppiness of Romans- Aidan, you've got this."_

_He sighed._

_"How do you know?"_

_"I'm omniscient Aidan Grace. Also I'm your best friend. I believe in you: go." _

Aidan got his guide dog, Helen, and he started taking classes at New Rome's university to become a teacher after being talked into it by his best friend, one Cassandra Jackson.

**46**

Jason retired from politics and went back to practising as a lawyer in San Francisco, and in New Rome where the city's crime rate was slightly rising.

**48**

Aidan became the first blind professor at Imperator Caesar Divi F High School in New Rome

**49**

Reyna passed away. She was bitten by a monster infected with a virus created by maleficent underworld spirits. She was the first of a wide epidemic.

**50**

Jason started teaching law at New Rome U

**54**

Jason was killed in San Francisco where a client was appearing in court and a monster was passing by.

He died two months before Percy.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes<strong>

Reyna remained claustrophobic her whole life.

The Grace family lasted several generations longer and Thalia watched over every single one.

Hylla died twenty years before Reyna, in battle. Kinzie became Queen of the Amazons.

Reyna's eldest granddaughter, Aidan's second child, was an Amazon.

* * *

><p><strong>Questions for Percy and Annabeth<strong>

**1) ****Who is Cassandra more like? Annabeth or Percy?**

Percy: We literally don't know where the hell this kid came from.

Annabeth: If you want a correct answer: although Cassandra is very much her own person, she's far more academic than Percy ever was.

Leo: She's nearly as sassy as him.

Percy: Nearly as much? Whoa, let's not exaggerate.

Leo: I'm sorry, have _you _ever babysat her and Aidan at the same time when they were seven? No: this is my call to make.

**2) ****How did you (Percy) propose to Annabeth?**

Percy: Technically I proposed to Annabeth twice because she walked in on me when I was asking her Dad for his OK while doing the dishes after Thanksgiving supper. Then I actually proposed to her when we were hanging out in a baseball park in New Rome, watching the sunset. After _that _she'd told me that she'd actually known all along.

Annabeth: He didn't screw up (the second time), it was actually very sweet. He said something about how at first he'd imagined that New Rome could be a safe place for us when we grew up, but that now he thought that we could make it anywhere as long as we were together.

**3) ****What was the wedding like?**

Annabeth: It was at Montauk, and it wasn't enormous because we were worried about the scent- though a lot of demigods crashed anyways. Piper, Rey and Rachel were bridesmaids; Percy had Jason, Grover and Frank as best men. Leo got his degree to legally marry us off of the internet and there was no talking him out of it. There was a lot of blue. Literally everything was blue. It was small and sweet.

Percy: Some guy diving into the ocean photo-bombed our picture.

Leo: There are two kinds of people…

**4) ****What happened to their daughter? [after they died]**

Leo: Uncle Leo took care of her. Duh.

Cass: I was a young woman hopeful of being a brain surgeon studying at New Rome University's very small and very picky medical department. Aidan was my roomie. After Dad died and I was alone it was really hard on me (I nearly flunked a semester and lost my job) but I managed in the end of the day, thank you very much.

* * *

><p><strong>Next chapter Piper McLean and Thomas Rosenberg <strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Annons!<strong>

**Lover of this fa- **Glad you liked it!


	115. Piper McLean and Thomas Rosenberg

**Hey guys! Hope you had gorgeous weeks, I had a gorgeous one thanks to your kind reviews and the fact that it is now over. I'm in a rush, so no annon replies today, re-ask questions that you want answers to, love you all!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own!**

* * *

><p><strong>Piper McLean and Thomas Rosenberg<strong>

**Dedicated to: IM me if it's you **

* * *

><p><strong>16<strong>

Piper was talked into joining the school musical by a Broadway child star attending Goode who wanted her school musical to look good when art school scouts came to see her.

She conveyed such power when she sang, she was so invested in it; that when the scouts came by, they ended up inviting Piper instead.

When she refused they were adamant about her joining a cast for Broadway at least.

Piper was adamant about finishing high school first.

Guess who won.

* * *

><p><strong>17<strong>

Tommy came close to death during duty as a Centurion, cracking his skull and spending a few weeks mostly paralysed from the waist down following a major concussion.

He lived, but Aphrodite suspects that if Piper wouldn't have gotten to California as fast as she did he wouldn't have.

Piper broke her wrist and forearm two months later. Their injuries always had a counterpart on one another.

_Since Justine's girlfriend wasn't openly out of the closet yet, she was reduced to going to prom alone. That was not cool to Piper, and so they went as friends, arm and arm. _

_In the middle of the dance the energizing pop song suddenly turned into a slow. _

_"Special request from 'Everyone', apparently, for Piper McLean. Check it out, Pipes." The DJ said, reading off a piece of paper. People were turning towards the door and ventured closer, and she saw him standing in the door frame, suit and everything. Since the day was at it's end, he was leaning on a pair of crutches to fight the fatigue. His smile had never been brighter though, and Piper screamed and tackle-hugged him so hard he was nearly knocked off balance. People cheered. _

_"You look beautiful," he said as she rested her head on his shoulder._

_"You look pretty handsome yourself," she said. "I had no idea..."_

_"Yeah, Annabeth and Rachel and everyone basically has been working behind your back for this since the beginning of times."_

_"Can't say I'm dissapointed," she said kissing him. People cheered even louder. _

Tristan McLean adopted a little girl from a Vietnamese village that had been nearly destroyed during the War with Gaia, and whose few survivors owed their lives to Hazel, Jason and Percy. Piper got a little sister; Kimmy-Lee McLean.

* * *

><p><strong>18<strong>

Piper starred as Elphaba in _Wicked, _coming out of nowhere as one of Broadway's best talents_._ This of course made the media insane because all of a sudden Tristan McLean's daughter was stepping out of nowhere and she was a brilliant performer.

The joke amongst the seven was that when Piper was green, she could kiss anyone because of onstage romances in the show.

During which she took part-time classes in international relations and journalism, getting a master's degree in the later, and taught ESL classes to immigrants. She paid for her own school despite her father's offered help.

* * *

><p><strong>20<strong>

Tommy started taking part time classes with the New Rome University's faculty of medicine, a service offered to legionnaires in higher positions.

The bachelor's degree needed to enter medical school was given to him as a bachelor's degree in history for being half ancient god. Rather sneaky; but many legionnaires did it this way

[For example: Frank Zhang and Quinn Hunter].

* * *

><p><strong>21<strong>

Tommy retired from the legion after five years of service, a shorter amount of time but it was a privilege allowed to the war heroes, and moved to New York.

With a scholarship at NYU as a soccer player, he took up medical school full-time.

He was still the one keeping the European demigods together, as a family, and was until his death.

* * *

><p><strong>23<strong>

Tommy graduated from medical school.

Before doing anything else with their lives or careers, the two took eleven months off to backpack Europe. Tommy took Piper to Germany, and other countries they visited included Belgium, Switzerland, England, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Romania and Transylvania. They stepped a foot in Greece and Italy but neither of them could stand being in the countries where the war was fought.

Tommy proposed to Piper in Copenhagen, Denmark near the statue of the Little Mermaid by the sea.

_She was humming, tapping her hand against her knee as they walked back to the hostel._

_"What are you singing?" Tommy asked._

_"Oh, it's an old song."_

_"I don't recognise it." _

_"Probably not," Piper nodded. Her hair was done up in braids, and they fell past her shoulders. She managed to strand straight even with the weight of her backpack._

_"What are the words?" Tommy asked._

_Piper grinned, "It Beyoncé, so don't judge me." she said. She started humming again but jumped in with the real words. Charmspeak, Broadway training, and excellent control of her range and tones gave her the voice of an angel. "Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it / If you liked it then you should've put a ring on it…"_

_Before she could sing any further in one quick move he pulled the box from his pocket, opened it up and slipped the ring on her finger. She looked up in shock, completely caught off-guard. Tommy smiled at her though he was nervous as Pluto, shrugged off his backpack and did the obligatory kneeling thing._

Piper gave up on Broadway to work as a reporter for a magazine dealing with international relations.

* * *

><p><strong>24<strong>

The two finally got married, making them the first Greek and Roman demigods to get married since the gods moved to America.

Leo performed the ceremony after much begging on his behalf.

Hazel and Frank were instructed to be afraid.

* * *

><p><strong>25<strong>

Piper got a job at the United Nations as press officer.

Tommy started working at a children's hospital in New York as a paediatric oncologist.

* * *

><p><strong>27<strong>

Oliver Symon Rosenberg was born on March 5th, being the first recorded legacy to be both Greek and Roman.

The name came from Josie.

_"Ah," Josie said looking at them. "I see that you're back, how nice. Name your first child Oliver for me, will you?"_

_Piper and Tommy both blinked and Piper's jaw lowered. Tommy kind of looked like a deer caught in a flying ship's headlights and in a second Leo totally got what Josie was saying. He was going to say something, but Josie had already done it ultimately._

_Piper chose to ignore it. "By the way, I should apologise, I was a clutz and I broke a glass."_

_"Broke a glass," Josie repeated. "So that's what Americans call it."_

* * *

><p><strong>29<strong>

Isis Lena Rosenberg was born on September 12th

_"So what's Spit ball's name?" Leo asked once Tommy had slipped out of the room to bring Oliver, restless small child that he was, for a walk around the hall._

_"Her name's not Spit ball," Piper said with the patient tone that she got when, and only when, she was holding a kid._

_"You guys were talking about Christine or something. I think Olivia would rock."_

_"Leo don't tick me off," Piper said. "It's Isis."_

_"No!" Leo said. "No way, nuh-uh, you guys are practically _inviting _the Egyptian gods into our lives! What were you thinking?"_

_"I've been awake for the last 72 hours Leo, what the Hades have I said about ticking me off?" Piper warned. _

_"The child is cursed! Beautiful and all, but oh gods what have you done?" _

_"Leo. I've been awake _and giving birth_ for the last 72 hours," Piper added._

_"I'll shut up," Leo said. _

Her middle name was a parody of Piper's maiden name.

* * *

><p><strong>33<strong>

Eric Tristan and Jordan Hans Rosenberg were born on December 23rd

"Surprise you're going to have another baby," they said. "Oh look it's twins," they said again.

**Note**

Because of the twenty years of peace guaranteed by the gods after the doors of death were closed, more and more legacies showed up at Camp Half-Blood. A cabin for legacies was built to stop the fighting between cabins- though most legacies never slept two nights straight in one bed.

Cassandra Chase-Jackson was on a Poseidon/Athena schedule until she became head counsellor for the Legacy Cabin – Cabin 0. The Rosenberg kids did their best to not spend the nights with their siblings. Impossible since their choices were Cabin 10 (Aphrodite), the cabin to Nike (Victoria) and Cabin 0.

* * *

><p><strong>34<strong>

Tommy's father, Hans, passed away two months after his last grandchildren's first Christmas.

* * *

><p><strong>35<strong>

Tommy never immigrated or became a citizen of the United States, he therefore carried a green card- a card letting him live and take employment in the United States which he was legally held to carrying at all times.

This created an enormous problem when a green card quota was imposed and some were revoked, thus cutting the amount of foreigners who could reside in the country. This was referred to as the Green Scandal.

Tommy didn't make the cut, neither did many of the European demigods who didn't have specific reasons to be in the United States and had acquired green cards through the gods. They moved back to Europe as a group.

There was much protest regarding around families being separated. Jason was one of the strongest advocates against the quota, representing many of the European demigods and influencing the senate heavily.

Given the history of the Symposium, the general assumption was that this was going to be it for Tommy and Piper.

* * *

><p><strong>36<strong>

After a year of living in Berlin and working there, Tommy got to go back to America.

* * *

><p><strong>39<strong>

Jordan was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia, and Eric with ADHD.

Piper became a spokesperson for the United Nations.

* * *

><p><strong>40<strong>

Tommy got in an accident in New York, involving a monster mutation [much in the likes, actually exactly like an earlier experiment, of the one who hurt Aidan Grace], and became paralysed from the spine down.

He was confined to a wheelchair because the surgery needed to heal his spine was risky and too costly since he wasn't an American citizen.

* * *

><p><strong>42<strong>

_Isis was smiling from ear to ear, wearing her leotard and georgette skirt and tights, a dance school jacket thrown over her shoulders. _

_"You did fabulous," Mom said kissing her on the cheek once again. Isis smiled and pushed her blonde hair over her shoulder. She had a very plain face, but it had a quality to it that made it beautiful and memorable. Maybe it was her kaleidoscopic and bright eyes, or the usually kind smile that was giddy at the moment. _

_Eric and Jordan kicked their feet around and looked at the dancers, trying to find the prettiest one. Oliver cut their business by telling them that the jazz dancers were always hotter, so stop looking. Given who his girlfriend was, the opinion was slightly biased but nobody cared. Isis just held her flowers like a baby in the crook of one arm and the other's fingers were closed around the medal. She was trying to tell Mom that her arabesque here or there was flawed. Mom was talking her out of being too hard on herself._

_Dad wheeled himself between the twins._

_"Stop gawking at the young girls here. This means a lot more to your sister than that, and considering how much your sister means to do you should be more respectful."_

_ Jordan blushed wildly and Eric dug his hands in his pockets. Oliver smiled at them teasingly._

_"You did good, I." Jordan said. "You were really good. You were the best."_

_"Aww, thank you Jordy!" She said hugging her brother, practically bouncing on her feet given how energetic she was._

The three boys were extremely protective of their sister.

* * *

><p><strong>43<strong>

_There was a knock on Aidan's door._

_"Yeah," he called. The door opened and Aidan didn't hear footsteps._

_"It's Tom," whoever was at the door said._

_"Oh. Hi." Aidan said. He hadn't talked to Uncle Tommy in a long time, he had a lot of trouble going up stairs and that's where Aidan had been… not sulking, that was mom's word. 'Spending his time'. _

_"Hi. How are you?"_

_"My head doesn't hurt anymore."_

_"I mean mentally."_

_Aidan didn't say anything. "It's dark all over." _

_"It is, isn't it?"_

_"And I keep thinking that I'll collapse and have a seizure again._

_"You'll get used to it," Tom said._

_"That's not helpful!" Aidan protested grumpily._

_"Well is it at least comforting?" Uncle Tommy asked. "Isn't it comforting to think that your life may have changed completely but you'll have it back one day?"_

_"I won't get it back I'm _blind, _Tom. Blind and epileptic and I can't fight I can't move."_

_"You're wrong about that last part, by the way." Tom said. "But the fact is, 'your life' is always changing. 'Your life' is just your way of living and being able to live, so I'm not saying that it'll be like 'your life' before the accident, but you will get 'a life' back."_

_"What if it's not worth it?"_

_"It is." He promised. _

_"You're just patronizing me like everyone else. How can you be so sure?" Aidan asked._

_"Because, I'm in a wheelchair Aidan. After forty-two years of moving around however I wished to, I'm in a wheelchair. I was thinking the exact same thing you were, give or take the details. But I'm doing okay, and with the people around you –you mother, your father, Cassandra, your friends- there's no way you won't either."_

Tommy was Aidan's strongest advocate after his own accident.

* * *

><p><strong>44<strong>

Piper's job had made her too public and she was "shot" on her way to work one morning, in the streets of New York.

The bullet proved to be celestial bronze, and she passed away immediately.

Tommy blamed himself and his accident.

Jordan descended into a kleptomania and school-skipping phase, Oliver exiled himself completely, Isis became touchy as Hades, and Eric started neglecting food and school.

She was the first demigod who'd boarded the Argo II to be killed after the combat.

* * *

><p><strong>45<strong>

Tommy was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died during treatment a year later, after it had spread to his liver.

_The door opened and the guidance counsellor, which Eric knew all too well, skip-ran to the front of the class like a satyr. He knew for a fact that she was not._

_"Eric, Jordan, can you come with me, boys?" She asked with a plastic smile._

_Eric jumped to his feet and stuffed pens back into his pencil case._

_"This is about dad, isn't it?" Jordan asked, pale as a ghost._

_With a wide gesture of his arm, Eric shoved everything into his backpack plain and simple, heart beating fast, and threw an eraser at his brother._

_"Bro, it doesn't matter, get your stuff." He pushed. "Where's Isis? Does Isis know?"_

_"Boys, please just-"_

_"Tell us," Eric asked every single piece of him curious and scared and worried and in pain._

* * *

><p><strong>46<strong>

Oliver took care of his siblings with the help of his godmother Dani, and most of the crew, afterwards.

Isis got hit by a drunk driver in New York and nearly died. For the length of her coma it was feared that there might be a third soul connected to Tommy and Piper.

She made it, because there was no way Oliver was going to let the universe make it otherwise.

He got into some trouble for punching the drunk driver who was in the ER's lobby.

* * *

><p><strong>17 Years Later<strong>

She knew that Adrian was getting frustrated behind her.

"Carla, they're all basically the same thing." He said.

"No they're not," Carla protested. "Each of these graves is completely unique. Just let me find one. Just one, then we leave."

She knew he wouldn't move or leave without her no matter how much he hated her hobby. Armed with that piece of information, she knelt in front of the different gravestones, looking at the names and the dates and the fonts, her knees touching the dewy grass. She always looked for those without flowers, to make the souls feel good. She moved one down and had nearly finished a whole row when she found one she liked.

_Thomas Sasha Rosenberg _

_1994-2042_

Carla squinted.

"Adrian?" She asked.

"Yeah?" He called from the other end of the row of stones.

"Do we know someone called Rosenberg?" She asked.

"He's in the camps' history books," he said. "He was one of The Crew. Holly Styx, his grave is here?"

"Yeah. But it feels more familiar than that…" Carla said looking at the gravestone like she should know the name. She looked right next to it.

_Piper McLean Rosenberg _

_1995-2041_

_Everyone deserves a chance to fly _

That one got to her. She felt chills go down her spine, even though this was just a woman in the history books. It felt more personal than that…

"And Piper McLean's right next," Carla said.

"Fantastic, let's look at where _dead people's bodies are kept _like that's not creepy at all!"

She put her paper to the stone and rubbed her charcoal over it. She walked off, starring at the rubbing until she got to Adrian. He put an arm around her when she showed him.

"Nice one. You seemed to have gotten all the details even better."

"Thank you," Carla said tugging the binder she kept her rubbings in out of her messenger bag, putting the new one away.

"Can we go now?" Adrian asked nervously.

Carla laughed and hit his arm. "You're such a woos," she said.

"Well some of us aren't the children of Hades." Adrian said. "Some of us find graveyards freaky."

Carla said kissing his cheek. "Don't worry. At least you're braver with spiders."

"Stop teasing me, Carla Jane."

He put an arm around her and they walked away from the graveyard.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes<strong>

Piper and Tommy never lived in Camp Half-Blood or New Rome. They were constantly balancing being Greek and Roman at once.

The European kids went on expeditions to Europe quite frequently; to visit home, to find new kids, to look for other survivors, or to find the families of those who never made it out of the camp in Germany.

* * *

><p><strong>Questions for Jason and Reyna<strong>

**1) ****Are they going to kill each other?**

Jason: No, that's not really the idea..?

Reyna: None of us committed murder after the War with Gaia when you could hold Joan against me.

**2) ****I totally see him [Aidan] and Cassandra be a potential couple.**

Cassandra: A hell no.

Aidan: Nope.

Cassandra: Definitely not.

Aidan: Eventually we did, but not to each other.

Cassandra: Hell yes. I have standards that have to be matched, you know.

Jason: Everyone always does [think that], but they've always been very adamant about "no".

Leo: Believe us, we've tried to hook them up.

Aidan: Uncle Leo, _you _tried.

**3) ****Who did Aidan marry?**

Jason: A daughter of Ceres named Ava. She's sweet, he's really happy.

Aidan: Dad died a few months after Cameron and Aurelia were born.

**4) ****Why would Aidan need sunglasses?**

Cassandra: This is still a sore subject, but since there's some serious nerve damage behind the eyes sometimes he goes cross-eyed or looks like he's starring at someone. Sunglasses cover it up. Also at first they were really scarred and burned and et cetera, so it stopped people from asking questions and looking at him like he was a creep- though everyone in New Rome knew him.

Aidan: Also they let people know that there's a blind guy coming through and that they owe me the lane if I'm crossing the street at a stupid time.

5) **Who would win a fight between Jason and Reyna**?

Jason: Probably Reyna. I'm like an open book when I fight, and as a daughter of war she knows how to read it and totally cream me about one in five times. It's natural, after all. Her drive is always stronger than mine and she can change her fighting style and adapt to literally using a broomstick as a spear.

Reyna: The sad thing is that he's seen me do that last one.

**6) ****Who would win a fight between Jason and Percy?**

Jason: The outcome always changes.

Percy: We both beat each other pretty evenly on a 50/50 basis.

Hazel: But I cream you both.

* * *

><p><strong>Next: Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque<strong>


	116. Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque

**Hey guys! Hope you had a gorgeous start-of-the-week. I did because yesterday it was a snow day and wrestling started at school today. **

**Also thank you for sending in your questions: I got a wackload for Tommy and Piper. They're at the bottom. Keep at it, you're all great. I hope you enjoy today!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own!**

**Note: **The age shown first is Frank's age. Second is Hazel's. Keep in mind that by the time Hazel's birthday in December comes around, they are only two years apart in age, but to avoid conflict I've put a three year gap.****

* * *

><p><strong>Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque<strong>

**Dedicated to: IM me if it's you**

* * *

><p><strong>16 . 13<strong>

Frank was able to walk with his prosthetic leg functionally by December, and he was able to run by March.

* * *

><p><strong>19 . 16<strong>

Frank learned, and by this time fluently spoke, Mandarin.

Grandmother Zhang, who had been living in a nursing home in New Rome, died that year.

* * *

><p><strong>20 . 17<strong>

Frank started taking part-time classes at NRU, in the same program as Tommy: medical school.

* * *

><p><strong>23 . 20<strong>

Frank retired from the legion three years early. He moved back to Vancouver where he completed his final year of med school in northern Vancouver.

Hazel was offered the duty of Centurion, but she declined.

* * *

><p><strong>24 . 21<strong>

Frank graduated from medical school and went on to specialise in physiotherapy.

Hazel retired from the legion and joined him in Canada to get a taste of the world.

She took classes to become a gemologist, and was very quickly certified by the American Gem Society (AGS)

* * *

><p><strong>26 . 23<strong>

Hazel worked at a bank, as a fine jewellery asserter

* * *

><p><strong>27 . 24<strong>

Frank became as a licensed physiotherapist.

He started working as a physiotherapist for the Canadian Army after completing basic training in Quebec.

Hazel spent that time in New York, the city of lights, working in a retail jewellery store and helping out with the Argo II crew's babies who were popping up left and right.

* * *

><p><strong>28 . 25<strong>

Frank was deployed in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, and they moved back in which each other once things were stabled. Hazel nailed a job as a fine jewellery appraiser at a private practise. She soon quit because of problems with her employer. She did private commissions and worked at a bank once more.

* * *

><p><strong>29 . 26<strong>

_"Dude, I'm thinking of proposing to Hazel," Frank said nervously, seeking advice._

_"Cool. Just make sure that the diamond's legit because she can tell." Leo said._

Frank and Hazel got married in New Rome.

Leo did not perform this ceremony either.

He was best man- so he wasn't disappointed.

* * *

><p><strong>32 . 29<strong>

Their first daughter was born on April 12th, Emma Mary-Emily Zhang

_ She walked up to Frank with her eyes bright. There had been a betting pool on this, but Emma had taken after her mother and it was becoming more and more obvious with every day of her life. She had dark olive skin and golden eyes, with short black hair cut into a pixie cut and topped off with a headband decorated by a purple flower._

_"Daddy?" She asked turning her head to her side like whenever she was asking a question._

_"Yeah sweetie?" He replied looking up from his work and down at the tiny little girl. _

_"Why did you get a metal leg instead of having two normal legs like Mommy and Uncle Leo and Aunt Clarisse and me?" She asked with her big gold eyes wide and curious. They were even harder to say no to than Hazel's. _

_ Frank hesitated for a few seconds._

_"I didn't like the old one, so I had it changed." He said._

_"Oh. Can I have a new one too, then?"_

_"No," Frank said. "You can't just change your leg like that. Especially not you. Because there is nothing that you that's ever gonna need changing," he said picking up his little girl and swinging her onto his good knee. _

_"But you're going to have to grow a bit, lest you become like Uncle Leo and remain eternally short, or worst, your mother." _

* * *

><p><strong>34 . 31<strong>

Their second daughter was born on September 30th, Karine "September" Angela Zhang

She was a real character compared to her sweetheart of a sister.

_ The little girl wound her hands in his shirt as per usual whenever someone held her, and studied everything around her with big eyes. She looked a lot like Emma, but her hair was down around her face in curls a thousand times more organised than Hazel's and her skin tone was paler. _

_"Were you at the doctor's?" He asked cocking his head to meet September's eyes. It was a nickname Nico had given her because he was tired of Hazel chiding him on pronunciation, and it'd caught like wildfire and honestly suited her better._

_"Yes she was!" Emma chided in._

_"I know, but I'm asking her not you goofball," Frank said pushing Emma's headband over her eyes. She giggled. _

_"Dockor." September said to prove herself._

_"Doctor," Hazel said rubbing her back._

_"Were you now?" Frank asked. "Did he listen to your heart?"_

_"Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom," she offered as an explanation. _

_"Uh-hun," Frank said. _

_"I have to go draw," Emma said._

_"Okay sweetheart. Don't forget Uncle Leo's birthday card," Hazel said._

_ Emma stomped upstairs. _

_"He said that she was fine," Hazel said. "The antibiotics did their trick."_

_"No more bronchitis for you, short stuff." Frank said ruffling September's curls. She made a face at him –he'd committed the ultimate crime- and wiggled out of his grip and off to go wander off- probably to join Emma. _

* * *

><p><strong>36 . 33<strong>

_"September, it's time for bed." Hazel repeated sternly._

_September shook her head. "I don't wanna Mommy."_

_"September, sleep is good for you, and you have to listen. Can you be a good girl for Mommy?"_

_"No!" She protested, hands clinging to the stair banister._

_"Please September?" Hazel asked again. "I'm not going to ask you another time, sweetie…"_

_September scowled at Hazel and bore teeth. Except they were sharp tiger jaws. _

* * *

><p><strong>37 . 34<strong>

It appeared that Frank was wrong about Emma ever needed changing, because she was diagnosed with lung cancer her second year of preschool, at the age of five.

_Hazel leaned against the wall and held her arms close to herself. She'd had to excuse herself from Emma's room. Just something about the IV sticking out of Emma's arm, though it was ultimately for the better, was so shocking and scary and alien… _

_"Haze?" _

_She looked up and saw Frank._

_"I'm sorry," she said automatically feeling guilty for having left the room. "I- I just… I can't…" _

_"It's okay," Frank said. "She's asleep now." _

_"I just can't watch her in that bed with that IV, in a hospital, with cancer." Hazel said taking a deep breath. "I just… I don't want her to go…"_

_"She's not going anywhere, Hazel." Frank said gathering her in his arms. _

_"Don't lie to me," Hazel snapped pushing him away. He looked confused but Hazel was fuming. "Don't just say something to try and make everything good and sunshiny Frank, I don't want to be babied."_

_"Hazel, I'm not lying to you." He said defensively._

_"She's sick, Frank. She has cancer." Hazel said her eyes swarming with tears. "That's not… That's not just _a thing, _it's serious." _

_"Haze, I'm not taking this lightly." Frank promised, somewhat offended. "Not at all! As much as she's your child, she's my daughter. But I'm not lying to you."_

_"You're so positive that things will turn out alright, it feels like it." Hazel said tightening her arms against her chest and closing her eyes. She'd brought this onto Emma. She'd died of suffocation, her lungs had never been the same even after Leo and Frank had sealed the deal and brought her back for good. She'd passed it on to her daughters- Emma first, maybe September next… _

_Despite how close she was to spitting poison ten seconds earlier, Frank got closer and leaned against the wall next to her. _

_"Hazel," he said. "Do you know what chemotherapy is and what it actually does? How successful it is?"_

_Hazel didn't want to admit it but she swallowed her pride. "I tried to ask. And I tried to find out, but I hate computers and the doctors were busy and there wasn't any time to find books... I have no idea what they're doing." _

_"It's a drug that's really hard on the body," Frank said patiently, like the first time he'd taught her how to type or brought her to a movie theater or shown her an iPad. "But it works, Hazel, especially if the doctors are saying that Emma's a good patient to take it."_

_"People have survived thanks to it?" Hazel asked shakily. _

_"Oh yeah," Frank said. "They do."_

_Hazel chewed on her lips and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry I snapped. I just… I was really worried and I didn't feel like people were taking me seriously about Emma until she started coughing up blood and I had to rush her here, and in 1940 if you had cancer you died and I don't want that." Her throat clogged up and tears rolled down her cheeks. _

_Frank held her close._

_"You are not in 1940, neither is Emma. She will not die. She'll be sick a lot, that's what chemo does, but she won't die. If the doctors don't answer your questions then they're doing their jobs wrong. If you feel like your questions are stupid, they're doing their jobs wrong and you can tell them. _I'll _tell them. Worst comes to worst, you can ask Tommy, child oncology is right up his alley." _

_Hazel let out a deep breath and leaned her head against Frank's chest._

_"It's so hard to shake the scary stuff. Even after all this time…" _

_"Hey, nobody's blaming you for that," Frank said kissing her head. "Or for being worried about Em." _

_Hazel took a deep breath. "Do you mind going home to take September off of Nico's hands? I… I want to stick around a bit. I'll find the doctor and figure this out."_

Frank was deployed in Kingston, Ontario during most of this; about two hours away from home in Ottawa. A trek he was more than willing to make.

* * *

><p><strong>38 . 35<strong>

September was signed up to piano classes in an effort to take her mind off her sister and keep her busy despite how rocky everything was at home.

Music became her passion. September played the piano, the violin and the flute though she liked the first two better. Jazz music and a loathing for auto tune and rap was something she and her mother always had in common.

September's favourite song was forever "Only the Good Die Young" and it brightened up the house considerably.

* * *

><p><strong>39 . 36<strong>

Emma finally got her lungs removed, and she received a lung transplant. The hard operation on a child was successful, and she was officially cancer free a year later.

September played in her first piano recital and loved it. She had memorised her partition without realising it, so when her book fell during the show, she kept going.

* * *

><p><strong>41 . 38<strong>

Emma was diagnosed with dyslexia.

* * *

><p><strong>42 . 39<strong>

September started taking violin lessons.

* * *

><p><strong>44 . 41<strong>

September started taking flute lessons. She was in her high school's music specialization program and she mastered instruments with ease. She was in the school's harmony, playing the flute.

Frequently teased for being Afro-Asian and bearing so little resemblance to her sister or one of her parents particularly, paired with a naturally haughty temper, September was surprisingly calm, focused and at peace with her music.

* * *

><p><strong>46 . 43<strong>

_They were watching Survivor together, all cute and together like a family. Emma and Dad were arguing over how the votes should be split between three contestants and whether it was too far-fetched to split the vote like that. _

_September got up. "Does anybody want a Coke?"_

_"No thanks, baby." Mom said. _

_"Me, Seppy," Emma said. She was leaning back against Mom's chest. _

_"Nuh-uh baby girl, you've had two today." Hazel said._

_"I'll take one," Dad said._

_"Not if you're going to give her sips," Mom said raising an eyebrow at her. Dad smiled, Emma smiled and September snorted._

_"Just you then, Kary." Dad said. _

_September snuck Emma sips. _

* * *

><p><strong>47 . 44<strong>

**June**

Emma's lung cancer came back and was only caught when it was at stage IV.

**November**

Emma passed away on November 2nd. The celebration of September's birthday was the last time she ate (cake), talked properly (Happy birthday Sep, I love you), walked around (Let's go get pizza downstairs) and was happy.

September sang and played piano at her funeral.

"What Sarah Said"

"Only the Good Die Young"

"I will follow you Into the Dark"

"Samson"

Her sister was never quite the same, but then again none of them were.

* * *

><p><strong>50 . 48<strong>

At the age of 18, September joined the NYOC –National Youth Orchestra of Canada- as a percussionist, playing the piano.

* * *

><p><strong>52 . 50<strong>

September played in the Toronto Orchestra. She stayed there her whole life, about six hours away from Ottawa where her parents lived.

* * *

><p><strong>53 . 51<strong>

Frank was killed by a monster

* * *

><p><strong>63<strong>

Out of all the crew on the Argo II, Hazel lived the longest. She died of respiratory failure and this time for good, and saw her three grandchildren.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes<strong>

Hazel was an effortlessly elegant woman for the rest of her life. Casual, social, and professional- she lived a life that people would kill to live half of.

Frank soon discovered that his clumsiness came back each time he transformed, which explained the large part of his childhood spent as a first class clutz.

Hazel most often wore skirts and dresses as an adult. She loved jeans, but still wasn't sure about regular pants. She was surprisingly modern, though.

Frank was plagued with ghost pains for most of his life, because of the violence of his injury.

Hazel had asthma and lung troubles for the rest of her life. She had previously died of suffocation, after all.

Nico and Leo were in and out of the picture at various intervals, often unpredictable. Though they always seemed to have a knack for showing up on the days that Hazel was swarmed and Frank was overseas, or that September needed a little extra attention during Emma's treatment.

Emma and September were both fully trained warriors and they could properly use the family gift by the age of twelve. Though September was much quicker to catch on with the gifts, Emma was the most agile in human form with weapons.

September inherited the land on which the Zhang house had once been built was and built a new, smaller house on it.

The next generation of the Zhang family gift –September's children- were named Dominique, Jude, Edwin and Rafael. The second to last moved back to Vancouver as an adult. The four of them joined the legion.

* * *

><p><strong>Questions for Tommy and Piper<strong>

**1) ****What happened to Piper's sister (adopted)?**

Piper: Kimmy had a good life. Dad was around a lot more for her than he was for me since he wasn't struggling for work and to stay a good name in the acting business. But he did protect her from the media equally- that is to say that any picture of her was paparazzi. Also Hans [Rosenberg] was around a lot, because he and Dad got along really well and eventually they lived together when Hans got sicker. She was flower girl at my wedding- cute as a button; made sure I had something blue and lent me a hairclip and an old bead bracelet she'd made for "something borrowed" and "something old".

Kimmy: Before Pipes gives out my whole life story, embarrassing baby stories with; I graduated from university with a master's degree in English language. I became a playwright and a director in California, and I was nominated for Oscars twice. I'm a spokesperson to make adoption laws easier in the US and I visited Vietnam twice.

**2) ****And so were Tommy and Piper split apart when he went to Germany?**

Tommy: Yeah, we were. Piper had to stay in New York because of her job and the kids. Meanwhile I couldn't go back into the country because immigration and customs was scared that people who'd been deported would never leave. I had a flat with a few of the European kids, who were also deported, in Berlin. It was about fourteen months of hell before everything got straightened out and I came back home. Let's just say that going through immigration at JFK and seeing them in the lobby after a year was the best thing.

Piper: The hardest part was Christmas. The kids loved using the iPad to talk to Dad and Aunt Dani in Germany, but they felt the gap in the family even more.

**3) ****Why didn't Piper and Tommy chose Elysium?**

Quinn: According to my research, it isn't a choice they get to make. They just reincarnate again and again.

**4) ****Are Adrian and Carla the next reincarnations of Tommy and Piper given the Symposium thing?**

Chiron: We think so, but haven't approached them on the subject yet. Nor do we intend to tell their children.

**5) ****Carla's a daughter of Hades and Adrian's a son of Athena?**

Carla: Yeah, what about it?

**6) ****What was the wedding like?**

Tommy: It was on December 3rd and the first snow actually came a week early and ended up on that day.

Piper: I feel like I need to defend that we didn't do the sappy faux-fur dresses or crystal bouquets or red-and-green-everywhere that all winter weddings had. It wasn't Christmas, it was a wedding and it was very nice. We ended up having a lot of people because of all the camps, and the real world. Part of the vows were in German-

Tommy: Which I had no idea about.

Piper: I saw your face, you liked it, stop complaining. Drew designed my dress because she was pretty sure there wasn't a single thing I'd pick, and Cabin 10 made and paid for it. We were in an old theater for most of it, so that was cool.

**7) ****Why did you decide to name Isis after an Egyptian goddess?**

Tommy: Piper picked the name, but I frankly don't think there was anything to it.

**8) ****To Tommy: Is it hard to win arguments against a charmspeaker?**

Tommy: Yes, but usually she tries to keep it out of her voice, so that's not the reason I always lose.

**9) ****To Piper: What was your favourite European country/city you visited on your backpacking trips?**

Piper: I liked Germany a lot. There are only so many things that make Tommy's eyes glitter like they did then. I liked Switzerland a lot too. But I'll always have a soft spot for Denmark.

**10) ****Why the heck would you let Leo perform your wedding ceremony?**

Leo: It's cute how you think they had a choice.

**11) **** Dang, Piper had A LOT of kids compared to the others. **

Piper: In no precise turns: the third was a surprise. Then there was a twin.

**12) ****Did all the couples reunite in Elysium?**

Chiron: We believe so, all but Jedediah who was speeded to the Isles of the Blest. He's trying to fix it, we think.

**13) ****Did Tommy's grave have any inscriptions?**

Oliver: Yeah: Good friend, for Jesus´ sake forbeare/ To digg the dust enclosed here!/ Blest be ye man that spares thes stones/ And curst be he that moues my bones. Same as Shakespeare.

Eric: Still not sure if that was a good idea.

Isis: Hush, Eric, Dad loved Shakespeare!

**14) ****Why didn't Cass and Aidan marry each other? :(((**

Cass: For crying out loud, we've settled this. Our friendship is platonic. Besides, I have standards.

Aidan: Listen to her guys, she's got the Death Eyes going on.

**15) ****How was it like being in a wheelchair? **

Tommy: It was harder at first because the house wasn't wheelchair friendly. I could manage the stairs with crutches if I had to; but the bedroom, the kitchen and everything truly necessary was downstairs. I got to keep my job, though it was funny to people that their doctor was in a wheelchair. It took some getting used to and I had to rest my pride and accept help sometimes.

**16) ****Who are the kids most like?**

Tommy: Isis is like Piper in the sense that she can perform. She's a ballerina. Also she gets in trouble with boys because she got the Aphrodite gene, but can fight them off with her bare hands.

Piper: Oliver's got Tommy's protective streak, which came from me telling him to go watch his siblings whenever he wanted to help around the house while Tommy was gone. He was old enough to realise what was going on, but too young to be given responsibility, so that satisfied him and me. And he's really good with little kids.

Tommy: Eric can't be outspoken. He's good at debates and he's ready to fight hard like Pipes.

Piper: Like Tommy, Jordan's shy as a mouse and he barely says a word. Which is too bad because he plays guitar and sings like an angel, but he likes to keep it to himself so we let him- though Eric makes him pipe up every now and then.

Tommy: And Jordan calms him down when he needs it.

* * *

><p><strong>Next: Quinn Hunter<strong>


	117. Quinn Hunter

**Hi guys! Once again, I am posting in a rush. I have to go to school. Yeay. It's Friday, though! Finished my Christmas shopping, eager for company to arrive, craving gingerbread- the usual December. Hope you had a good week, if not have a better weekend, and if so had a good weekend anyways!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

**Note: I had to edit this for two reasons. One, a part was missing. Two, I'd like to ask all of you if you could make time for a minute of silence today. There was a shooting in Connecticut, at an elementary school, and out of the twenty-seven confirmed casualties there are eighteen children. **

* * *

><p><strong>Quinn Hunter<strong>

**(Keep in mind that Quinn is three years younger than most of the crew)**

**Dedicated to: I am Reyna Daughter of Bellona**

* * *

><p><strong>14<strong>

Quinn led the fourth cohort. The first winter of she and Tommy's leadership, they dishonourably discharged half of the cohort and started from scratch. It proved to be better, and the fourth cohort was up there with the first cohort as far as prestige went.

* * *

><p><strong>15<strong>

Quinn started waking up extra early to run before breakfast and muster at the legion.

Tommy timed her, and brought her amazing times to the attention of Annabeth who was, as always, a higher power.

* * *

><p><strong>16<strong>

Quinn finally felt comfortable enough and accepted to go out with Jedediah.

It ended poorly a year later.

* * *

><p><strong>18<strong>

Quinn retired from the legion early with a full scholarship at the University of Toronto to study medicine, her undergraduate degree earned through the legion.

* * *

><p><strong>20<strong>

Her original plan to become a neurologist was brought to a halt when she was recruited by the Canadian Olympic comity for various track and field competitions.

In the 2016 Olympics Quinn won a medal of each colour, coming out of nowhere both for the country and the world. Gold in the 400 m sprint, silver in the 400x400 relay race, and bronze in the heptathlon.

She carried the Canadian flag during the closing ceremonies and became an iconic athlete.

_The set for interviews was like a living room with a view of the host city, Johannesburg. She sat on her sofa, snuggled up in her red coat, her two medals hanging around her neck._

_"So Quinn, you came out of nowhere for the country, you were just a student and suddenly here you are with two medals."_

_"Yes," she nodded shyly._

_"And so how did you start running? Was it at school, to get healthy, on a track team?" The interviewer asked._

_Quinn looked at her knees. "It started when I was a little girl, yes."_

_"Was it with school?" The interviewer asked._

_Quinn looked at her knees._

_"That's one way to put it," she said with calculating eyes. "But it wasn't an afterschool activity or a gym class sport. I would run to get to and from school because people would chase me and I was scared to death about getting caught."_

_The interviewer just starred for a few seconds. "So you were bullied?"_

_"Yes, I was totally and completely bullied as a child." Quinn said nodding, eyes wide behind her glasses._

_"And you're comfortable talking about this now, as a decorated Olympian athlete- the most decorated Canadian athlete in these games so far?" _

_"No I'm not, as a matter of fact. I'm-"_

_"You're not?"_

_"No, I'm not," Quinn said shaking her head. "It's horrible to live your life scared of people, and to have a childhood like that- you don't just forget it and, no, you don't forgive it either once you start getting mad instead of just being ashamed or scared or guilty."_

_"Do you forgive the people that did it to you?"_

_"No," Quinn said. "No, because I don't forgive walls, and because I don't forgive for no reason. But it does feel rewarding that right now I'm sitting here, talking to you, and they're sitting at home watching me." _

* * *

><p><strong>23<strong>

Quinn graduated from medical school.

She took a break from her education to focus on training for the 2020 Olympic Games, which she had decided would be her last.

Quinn had a fling with a fellow Canadian athlete; a wrestler named Ethan Hughes.

* * *

><p><strong>24<strong>

**June**

She earned a gold medal in both the heptathlon and the 800 m sprint, but was pulled out of her last race because of a twisted knee.

She broke up with Ethan after finding out that he was cheating on her with a diver.

[There was some drama in the athlete's village]

**October**

She had a relapse to her episodes of voices.

For weeks, Quinn was plagued once more and she couldn't sleep. They weren't as hard on her as they used to be, but don't mistake them for good.

Jedediah, with whom she was still friends, would spend his nights with her when he could (he was in the navy so it could be complicated).

_She arched her back and balled her fists. _

Miss us, miss us, miss us? Why would you think we'd leave? You haven't gotten any better, you're not worth any more than you ever were.

_"Jed," she called._

_The door swung open._

_"Things aren't good?" He asked._

Well that depends, how long are you staying? Not for long I reckon. Thumb screws, guillotines…

_Quinn tried to keep her breath stable, but it didn't work. Jedediah knelt at her bedside and laid down his hands palm-up on her sheets. She put hers in them and winced immediately._

_"Okay, what are they saying now?" Jedediah asked._

_Quinn took deep breaths. "I-I can't even tell- I just know it's horrible and it's you they're after."_

_"Dream nymphs from the underworld after navy demigod who was centurion, eh?" Jedediah said. "Gaia isn't backing them up, there's no way in hell. Annabeth already checked. I'll manage, Quinn, just relax and take a deep breath._

_Quinn tried but was interrupted halfway by a horrible spasm._

_Jedediah lied down next to her and kept her in his arms._

_"Tell you what," he said stroking her hair. "I'll stay here. All night, if you want me to. That way you know where I am and how I'm doing. Which is with you, and fine." _

_"It seems childish," Quinn whispered._

_"Well 'seems' is very loose," he said stroking her arm to calm her down. _

* * *

><p><strong>25<strong>

She studied at the University of Ottawa to become a neurologist.

The University of Ottawa is the only bilingual university in Canada so she got to study in French, which was important to her. Also, Ottawa was very close to her hometown.

She and Jedediah reconnected romantically in February.

* * *

><p><strong>26<strong>

Quinn and Jedediah got married. She kept her maiden name.

Jedediah was in the Navy at the time, and so permanent residence was tough.

* * *

><p><strong>27<strong>

Quinn became a certified neurologist and started practising in Montreal.

* * *

><p><strong>30<strong>

Quinn and Jedediah's daughter, Riley-Anne Cathleen Adams-Hunter was born on January 2nd

Part of her first name was Jedediah's mother's name, and her middle name was to honour Cate.

Riley was a very close friend of Emma Zhang growing up.

Quinn and Jedediah moved to New Rome to keep their daughter safe.

Quinn found work at a research lab in Oakland.

* * *

><p><strong>32<strong>

Quinn earned her PhD in neurology.

* * *

><p><strong>35<strong>

Riley started playing hockey in New Rome

* * *

><p><strong>37<strong>

Stephan Emanuel Adams-Hunter was born on June 7th

Emanuel was one of Jedediah's five complete brothers; he had passed away in the Giant War.

Stephan was deaf from birth.

Surprisingly, it was Jedediah who mastered sign language first, not Quinn. They wanted to know it before they had to deal with Stephan talking. Some of the crew started learning the basis.

* * *

><p><strong>38<strong>

Stephan had trouble learning how to walk because of the deficiencies in his ear, and he had a photographic memory.

* * *

><p><strong>39<strong>

Quinn and two other scientists she was collaborating with –Clarence Hilton and Samuel Rose- made a major scientific breakthrough and discovered a way to reverse certain side-effects of multiple sclerosis

* * *

><p><strong>41<strong>

Quinn and Jedediah discovered that Riley was being bullied at school by some legacies of higher class than Minerva and Virtus (Minerva being less venerated than Athena because of other, stronger, war gods and Virtus being minor)

Quinn was on a campaign to make Riley strong enough to stand up.

Once that was done, Riley received a black eye.

With support from parents, the boy was expelled and banned from enrolling in the legion.

* * *

><p><strong>42<strong>

Riley enrolled in the legion. She was in Aidan Grace's cohort; the Fifth, which had by them all its previous prestige.

She kept playing hockey in New Rome, and became a very good defenseman. She was busting the garage door with tennis balls real good.

Stephan started school in New Rome, in a regular classroom with an interpreter. He had trouble making friends at first, but he was a funny boy and eventually won hearts.

He also started figure skating in New Rome.

Since he couldn't hear the music or tips and orders barked out at him, Stephan counted seconds and beats mentally to when he should jump or spin, and he had a mental plan of where the other skaters were on the ice. Mental maps and time count became a remarkable talent.

* * *

><p><strong>43<strong>

Quinn's team of scientists discovered the cause of multiple sclerosis. Another lab took charge of figuring out how to stop it.

* * *

><p><strong>44<strong>

Quinn went back to working as a practitioner in San Francisco, at a hospital. She was tired of being in a laboratory, and she wanted to help real people now.

She was considered one of the country's greatest neurologists.

Quinn was decorated by the Governor General of Canada.

Stephan had his first figure skating competition.

* * *

><p><strong>45<strong>

Jedediah died.

The ship he served on was hit and Jedediah was one of the men not to get a life jacket and get off the ship. He died of hypothermia back on land.

* * *

><p><strong>46<strong>

Stephan became excellent at reading lips, so he could communicate with most people given that he had something to write on.

* * *

><p><strong>47<strong>

Stephan started pair skating- that is skating with a partner.

The first partner he had was a legacy of Cupid and Venus named Freya.

Until the age of 16, pairs are often switched around and experimented with.

* * *

><p><strong>48<strong>

Riley played in the 2046 IIHF Women's World Championship on Canada's team

(She could've played on the American team too, she had a dual nationality)

Canada won gold though Riley didn't have much ice time. She scored a goal against Switzerland.

* * *

><p><strong>49<strong>

Stephan joined the legion as a medic instead of as a legionnaire. He was the first member of the legion to enrol already deaf.

There was a writing-pad-and-tap system to get his attention and communicate. Stephan learned how to pronounce words like "Blood", "Ambrosia", "Nectar", "Unicorn" and "CPR" to make things roll more smoothly.

* * *

><p><strong>52<strong>

Riley retired from the legion as early as she could and moved to Canada to play hockey full time and stop juggling the game with legion life.

She played for the University of Calgary's hockey team.

During her life, Riley competed in the Winter Olympics.

* * *

><p><strong>53<strong>

Stephan's "official" partner was named Juliet Paradis. He skated with her from that point forwards.

She was the first person out of the family whose name he bothered to learn how to say out loud.

* * *

><p><strong>58<strong>

Riley married an NHL player from the Calgary Flames, Guy Lafontaine

Stephan and Juliet went to their first Olympic games, nailing bronze for the United States.

Stephan didn't know that they'd won until he saw Juliet's face, due to his lack of hearing.

* * *

><p><strong>58<strong>

Quinn saw her first grandchildren, William and Ava Lafontaine

* * *

><p><strong>59<strong>

Stephan retired from the legion. He and Juliet moved out of New Rome to focus on figure skating.

* * *

><p><strong>60<strong>

Quinn passed away in Berkeley. She was caught in a hospital shooting where she took a bullet seconds after sedating the gunman.

* * *

><p><strong>Note<strong>

Quinn was shy her whole life, except not out of fear anymore

Annabeth and Quinn remained close for the rest of their lives.

Hazel and Quinn were best friends after the war. Hazel was incorporated into the friend group of Quinn, Jedediah, Josh Ayano and Connor Stoll which was good for her.

Once Juliet retired from skating, she became a commentator on news channels. Stephan went to medical school and became a paramedic.

Quinn and Jedediah had three more children: Owen Hunter-Adams and Ava Hunter-Adams, and the twins' little sister Zara Hunter-Adams.

It was one of those times where skating pairs drift so close together that they get romantically involved. Juliet was the mother.

Quinn's father financially managed to go to college and become a teacher. He managed to teach until the day he died.

Jedediah's mother outlived her youngest son and his wife, and lived in New Rome with them.

* * *

><p><strong>Question for Frank and Hazel<strong>

1) Shouldn't Emma's middle name be "Marie" and not "Mary"?

**Hazel: Frank wanted to honour my mother with a middle name, and I did not. We settled on "Mary" and attached it to "Emily".**

2) Why was September's favourite song "Only the Good Die Young"?

**Frank: First long she learned to play by ear alone. It was also very catchy, it got everyone sitting and dancing nearly every time.**

3) Why did Hazel reject being a Centurion?

**Hazel: Because I'm not a leader. People just assume that heroes are. Also I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick around the legion for much longer.**

4) Why did you name your girls Emma and Karine/September?

**Frank: We liked the names. Yeah, we weren't very sentimental. **

**Hazel: "September" is actually Nico's doing. He got tired of me correcting him on how to say "Karine" so he just went with September. It caught on and she grew into it. I don't think we'd have named her a month officially, though, but it's cute as a nickname. **

**Nico: I said it fine!**

**Hazel: You said it like "Corinne"! There's clearly an 'a' in there! **

5) Where did September's sassiness come from?

**Percy: A little known fact is that Frank is sassy deep down. He just keeps it in because he's dutiful and disciplined that way.**

6) Describe your favourite memory with your daughters.

**Hazel: I think for me it's just having daughters in general. I lived most of my life sure that I would die, be miserable for the rest of my life, or always be the freak with no potential and future. Just to have them was a big deal for me.**

**Frank: I had a lot of fun training them. But my best memory is that we had a huge backyard that gave out into a forest, and so the girls had a little wooden clubhouse there. Anything from homework to tea parties to violin practise to poster making went down in there. The last few nights before Emma was checked into the hospital for the last time, it was a really hot fall so we camped out in there with hot chocolate and pretzels. It's bittersweet, I guess, but it's how I rather remember the family as opposed to a funeral or hospital sleepovers.**

7) Describe your favourite memory with just you two.

**Frank: I took her to Vancouver once, she was eighteen, because Percy and Jason had went out with her for Chinese food. I had to go to Chinatown, find some people who were like aunts to me, and prove to her that Chinese food can be delicious when it's not westernized. We had a lot of fun just going around the city.**

**Hazel: When we moved into the house there were boxes everywhere. We piled them up in the backyard, and since it was winter he decided that he should throw a snowball at me even though he had the unfair advantage of being Canadian and having been in many snowball fights previously. Long story short, it ended with us both being soaked. **

8) What was Emma like?

**September: Emma was the best fugging thing the world has ever seen. She was gentle and kind, caring and empathetic, patient and generous. She volunteered all the time- she was a young Girl Guide leader (named Sunshine), at elementary schools, the animal shelter, and an organization that collected and distributed furniture to immigrants and refugees. Some people have soccer practise on Monday and Friday, well Emma had animal shelter shifts. And it wasn't even because she had cancer and thought that she had a karmatic debt to the universe or anything else like that: she just didn't see why people _shouldn't_ volunteer. You would never have found a more positive girl. I wish that I could've been her to comfort her when she was sick, because Emma was good at that.**

9) Hazel, how did Frank propose?

**Hazel: He made it really traditional and simple because that's what I'm familiar with. We were downtown on Canada Day, to watch the show on Parliament hill and see the fireworks, and he just got down on one knee, told me that he loved me, and asked me to marry him. **

10) How old was Emma when she died, and did she get married and have children if old enough?

**Frank: Emma was fifteen, so no kids, no husband (or wife). **

11) Who did September marry?

**Hazel: His name was Chris Evans. He was a legacy of Jupiter, though his father wasn't claimed as a kid, and he trained with the legion. He was a year older and Aidan introduced them. **

12) Frank, what was your favourite animal to turn into?

**Frank: Long story short: often people specialise into a group of animals. My mom was excellent with birds; I hate birds. I tend to go for the bigger mammals. Elephants are the most fun. But they're not very convenient where I live, so racoons are always fun. September loves bugs and Emma does cats and dogs and household pets really well. **

13) Frank, did not having a leg make transforming difficult?

**Frank: Yeah, I was totally off balance if I tried to fly, and I wasn't a very powerful swimmer as a fish. But as an animal, while my shape is shifting I guess it figures it might as well grown another leg. **

14) Were people other than Hazel physically affected by their deaths like she was? (Ex: Annabeth)

**Hazel: Annabeth, for example, had huge concentration problems for a few months after her "death". I was dead for longer, so my symptoms were physical and life-long.**

**15) **Did the girls know that Hazel was from the 1940?

**Frank: Yes. We even took them to New Orleans.**

**16) **Did Frank every rebuilt his grandmother's house?

**September: No, but I did.**

**17) **Did Either of them go on any other quests? And were they together if they did?

**Frank: Not unless it was with the cohort as a whole. **

**18) How many times did they go and visit Camp Half-blood?**

**Frank: A bunch of times here and there, especially while we were in the legion. **

**19) **Did they have a special relationship with one of their daughters?

**Hazel: September and I were always linked by music, but other than that there isn't a way in hell that one of them was ever more loved than the other. At times, when Emma was sick for example, it may have seemed that way, but no.**

* * *

><p>Next chapter: Leo Valdez<p> 


	118. Leo Valdez

**Holly smokes guys, the story just hit 2000 reviews! So I'm posting this chapter early because you guys deserve it and I love you all!**

**One more thing: the story finishes on Friday. There will be a chapter on Wednesday (probably) and the finale on Friday, so tune in if you don't want to miss it.**

**Once again, thank you for the 2000 reviews, I love you all, and I hope you enjoy the chapter of The Valdez' life. I hope it does justice to his awesomeness. **

**Disclaimer: Me no own**

* * *

><p><strong>Leo Valdez<strong>

**Dedicated to: Annie Remmy Aurum**

* * *

><p><strong>16<strong>

For the first time in six years, Leo finished a school year living at the same place where he'd started it.

Leo had a major fling with one of Percy's friends, a skater-girl named Emilie Guerette.

To give you an idea of their relationship: their first date was at Walmart and they got kicked out because they were playing Mario Kart with shopping carts in the alleys.

Everyone thought their future looked pretty bright.

* * *

><p><strong>17<strong>

_Leo and Emilie sat on top of her garage which was, granted, not the best place to be sitting. But Leo had her head on his lap and she was sketching as he held up a flashlight for her and she was enduring his stupid jokes in the style of "how do Australians reproduce?" (They mate) so life seemed like the best, at the moment. _

_"This," Emilie asked holding it up. It was a carton princess again, one of her many adaptations of Rapunzel._

_"It looks really good."_

_"Dress is too generic," Emilie finally decided before putting the sketchpad back on her bent knees and flipping the page._

_This was a side of Emilie that people didn't get to see a lot. Cuddly Emilie, calm Emilie (double the 'calm'), artistic-without-graffiti Emilie, focused Emilie, critical Emilie. She could be the opposite of all those things- bubbly and hyper and sloppy and carefree. But there were two sides of Emilie, and Leo got to see them both._

_Which he felt really good about –usually people didn't trust Leo very much because his history was highlighted and authenticated by running away and not staying around much and being a dork. Maybe that was another side of Emilie that Leo got VIP (or Very Important Boyfriend?) access to. Open and accepting and wonderful Emilie. _

* * *

><p><strong>18<strong>

Leo and Em broke up because she would be moving to Arizona to go to art school, and he'd be going to the best engineering program at the time (as promised by Athena) at Massachusetts State University.

They didn't want to put the pressure of even trying a long-term relationship on themselves.

* * *

><p><strong>19<strong>

Leo was the king of the campus- the one guy you had to have around. It wasn't a party without The Valdez.

* * *

><p><strong>20<strong>

Leo's Aunt Rosa died. He didn't present himself to the funeral, because "she wouldn't want a devil child there".

It was the first time his friends really saw him being okay with the fact that he wasn't close to his mortal family.

**22-28**

Leo was the biggest loiterer.

Thanks to the bracelet given to him during the War with Gaia, Leo could decide to spend a weekend in Iowa, and show up to class the next day.

Often he'd disappear for a few weeks but show up on someone's doorstep wearing a poncho and holding a watermelon under each arm, asking for a place to crash because he'd lost his key.

But he was also Uncle Leo _for real. _He could be called to babysit anytime, anywhere- from Canada to New York to New Rome.

_"Your child makes a lot of noise. Are you sure his lungs are normal? Because with that capacity…" Leo said when he saw Piper walk into the living room._

_"Leo I am _so _not in the mood." Piper said punching the coffeemaker's buttons as if it was at fault for the world's cruelties. She was wearing sweatpants and a tank top, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. "And if you're going to complain, you can go find another couch to crash on."_

_"I can't- everyone gave birth this year!" Leo said. "It's like baby here, baby there, baby everywhere! And they _all yell. _You should hear Cassandra at three in the morning- all the dogs on the block literally pee in anticipation when she opens her mouth."_

_"Don't exaggerate," Piper said._

_"Look it may or may not be my business, but did you all plan it so they could all be the same age and be BFFs, or was this just a productive year?" Leo asked, honestly serious._

_"Leo." Piper snapped. _

_He couldn't afford to be too snotty. Piper could have responded a lot less kindly to a fully-dressed, super hyper, partially heartbroken Leo with garlic breath at her door at three in the morning- so he did owe her, which was never a good thing. Besides, it turned out that women could still be hormonal and snappy after they'd given birth._

_Tommy appeared in the living room, holding baby Oliver in his arms, dressed for work._

_"I've got to run; I'm working a shift I owe Richard." He said. _

_"I'll take Oliver," Leo offered since Piper was still making coffee and would probably want to eat breakfast too. Tommy didn't even wonder when exactly Leo had showed up in his household, he just kissed the baby's forehead handed Oliver over telling Leo for the thousandth time to support the head- as if Leo hadn't been told that enough throughout the year's baby-Apocalypse. "Pipes, you want to take a shower or something? And do you guys do that bottle-in-the-fridge thing? I can take him for a while."_

_"Okay, you can crash on this couch as often as you like, it's yours now." Piper nodded approvingly. _

* * *

><p><strong>22 <strong>

Leo became a mechanical engineer.

Leo worked in the Aerospace industry and moved himself over to Florida where the space program was reopening and kicking off once more.

* * *

><p><strong>24<strong>

Leo started getting impatient that nobody around him was getting married. So he got certified to marry people in New York and California thanks to the Internet.

He had the certificate hanging on his house's door and routinely dropped off photocopies in his friends' mailboxes.

Jason, Frank, Tommy and Percy sat him down for a serious talk after three months of this.

* * *

><p><strong>25<strong>

Through a lot of digging and swearing and trial and error, Leo developed the patent for the drill bit his mother had been working on the day he died. It wasn't exact, but considering he only had memories and a salvaged notebook to work with it was very close.

The Anza Drill end, which could fit many different kinds of screws, was a success, and Leo had a very solid revenue for the rest of his life.

Leo was Mother Theresa with that money, and lots of it went to supporting single mothers and the foster care system.

(It was also poured into cancer research after Emma Zhang was diagnosed many years later)

* * *

><p><strong>29<strong>

The space program came to an end after a successful launch to Mars after a rover named Argos was landed.

[Leo picked the name]

Leo started taking in foster children.

* * *

><p><strong>30<strong>

Leo was in Vermont for work when out of the blue he reconnected with Emilie Guerette who was visiting one of her brothers there.

_Coffee was all fun and games for Leo and Em. He was more than excited to catch up with her. He hadn't heard her laugh in ages, and it was honestly cuter than he remembered it- though he banished the thought. Though she refused to talk about her personal life (pretty adamantly, actually), he had seen the ring on her finger. _

_She brought her coffee cup to her lips and the sleeve of her green sweater hiked up her arm. Leo spotted a bruise._

_"You must've hit yourself hard," he said acknowledging it. Emilie's eyes bugged out and her lips parted and froze and her eyebrows did that weird straightening-out thing._

_"Oh, no, I didn't- well, I did, I just… I'm a clutz, right?"_

_"That's your uh-oh face." Leo frowned._

_"You remember my uh-oh face?" Emilie said._

_"Why wouldn't I remember your uh-oh face?" Leo asked. "Also I remember that you're the least clutzy person in the world. What happened to your arm, Emilie?" _

_"Nothing," she snapped pulling the sleeve down. "Leave it, Leo." _

_She was twisting her wedding ring._

_"Emilie…" he said very slowly, putting the pieces together. _

He stayed in contact with Emilie for months afterwards.

* * *

><p><strong>31<strong>

Leo was asked if he would mind taking in a nine year old boy called Holden who suffered from catatonic childhood schizophrenia.

Given the end of his contract with the space program and the money pouring in from the drill bit, he decided to take in Holden even if that meant more staying at home, and an awful lot of patience.

_Leo leaned against the horse arena and watched as Dawn, the program manager, led Star around its perimeter by the reins. Holden held onto the reins, back straight, looking straight ahead. _

_"I told you," Leo told the social worker. "Horseback riding calms him down. It's been twenty minutes where we haven't heard a word from him, because he's too busy enjoying being on tht horse."_

_She tapped her pencil against her clipboard. "Look, I'm not a psychologist I can't make the proper…"_

_"I'm not a psychologist and nobody has to be to look at that and realise that Holden's getting better." Leo said. "I have a horse shaped cookie cutter- for the first time I can make him eat nearly anything. He'll draw, he'll calm down, it gives him something to talk to people about."_

_"Leo, I don't know if the system has the money to fund this." She said shaking her head._

_"I'm not asking for that," Leo said. "Literally, I'll do whatever I have to do to keep Holden riding. I just need permission to keep him in this activity." _

Emilie's husband was arrested when she finally called the police during a fight, and he assaulted both her and an officer.

Leo helped her cut the strings she had left, file in the correct paperwork, and start over.

* * *

><p><strong>32<strong>

One of his foster children became too old for the system, one went to college, another was reunited with his family, and Holden was placed in an institution.

Leo moved to Burbank, California where Emilie was a storyboard animator for Walt Disney Pictures. Emilie did not believe in the institution of marriage after her first wedding, and so the two never got married. But make no mistake; she was forever Aunt Emmie.

Leo was one of the few half-bloods who decided to spend their lives with a mortal.

Leo became Emma Zhang's godfather.

Leo got a job working for Boeing; designing air planes.

Other patents he invented were a silent pencil sharpener, a touch screen that worked with fingerprints, and a mechanism that drew and released arrows on its own.

On the magical side of craftsmanship, Leo's exploits were too long to list.

* * *

><p><strong>33<strong>

Leo and Emilie started taking in foster children. One of the little girls stayed with them until she graduated from High School: Mocha.

_"Hey, Maddy," Leo said opening the cupboard under the sink. Madeline was hugging her knees, her chocolate brown hair flopping over her eyes. He knelt down._

_"Hey, you. Funny place to hang out. What's wrong kiddo?"_

_"I'm hiding," Maddy muttered._

_"Now why would you do that?" Leo asked._

_"I don't like my name." Maddy said bitterly, looking at her knees._

_"You don't? It's a pretty name."_

_"No. It's long and boring and my mama gave it to me but she gave me away too- and that was bad, so my name's bad too."_

_Leo took it in for a few seconds. "Well, how about we find you a new name? You can pick it, that way we know you'll always like it. How's that?"_

_Maddy considered, accepted the logic behind it, and nodded._

_"I think you look like a Mocha," he said playing with a strand of her brown hair. "What do you think?"_

_Maddy –no, _Mocha- _nodded adamantly. _

_"Cool," Leo said. "Now let's get you out of there and I can get you a glass of milk, how's that?" _

He had about twenty kids go through his doors over the years. The numbers were so small because only one of them ever ran away, and most of them liked the house so much and did so well that they stayed for as long as they could instead of Leo's childhood flip-flop.

Any kid passing by the household was considered part of the huge Argo-II-crew-family.

* * *

><p><strong>34<strong>

Leo was contacted by the Florida Foster Care System. Holden wasn't doing well in institution, and they thought that he'd be able to make miracles happen. Holden, age 13, moved in with Emilie and Leo.

_"Hey buddy," Emilie said when Holden wandered into the kitchen. "Do you want to come help me roll meatballs?" _

_Holden nodded and stood next to her at the kitchen counter. _

_"I'll scoop the meat out, and you can just roll them so they look like meatballs, how's that?" _

_Holden nodded. "Is that the ice cream scooper you're using?"_

_"Yes," Emilie said._

_"Ewe. I am never eating ice cream again." He said making a face._

_Emilie laughed. "Don't worry, I wash it goofball." _

_"Did you draw me a horse today?" Holden asked._

_"Yes I did, sweetheart. I spent all of my lunch break drawing you a new one." Emilie said, keeping up with his flimsy conversation._

_"Where is it?" _

_"In my bag, in the room by the door. Don't you want to help me out anymore?"_

_"I don't like meat." Holden said. "Meat's for tigers and the Rat don't like it."_

_"Is Rat here today?" Emilie asked. _

_"Mm-hmm," Holden nodded. Rat was one of the hallucinations that Holden saw again and again- this one since his childhood. _

_"And so what about Pelican?" Emilie asked._

_"He left today. He got mad at me."_

_"Oh, that's okay, Hold." Emilie said trying to look supportive. To Holden, all of these -from the animals to the people to the things in between- were real. Defying his reality never led to anything good- not at this point of his life. __"How about I wash my hands and get you your horse then, Holden?" Emilie asked._

_Holden nodded, frowned, and then shook his head. "I think I need to go in my room."_

_"Why?" Emilie asked. _

_"I have to." Holden said nodding, flicking his wrists- a telltale anxious habit that he'd had even before Leo had first taken him in._

_"I think you should stay downstairs," Emilie said. _ Last time Holden had so adamantly and promptly wanted to isolate himself like that, he'd spent a week and a half recovering in a psychiatric ward with cuts on his arms. __

_"No I can't!" Holden yelled at her. He slapped his wrists._

_"Holden, please don't hurt yourself," Emilie said drying her heads, getting ready to intervene. _

_"But Rat..."_

_"That doesn't mean we have to listen to Rat, remember?" Emilie said. "Okay, let's go get your picture, and then maybe you and I can draw some more horses, how's that?"_

_"I don't know how and I can't draw and Rat says so."_

_"Well I'll teach you, how's that?" Emilie asked holding out her hand. He was a really sweet kid, very attaching and very fond when he was having a good day. _

* * *

><p><strong>40<strong>

Holden was able to function in society, and went to college. He graduated with a degree in math and worked with a company that wrote math textbooks.

* * *

><p><strong>47<strong>

Mocha graduated from high school and lived on campus at NYU. She was like a daughter to Leo.

* * *

><p><strong>53<strong>

Emilie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her ovaries were removed within a year of diagnosis, and she was alright.

* * *

><p><strong>55<strong>

Leo became Anise Sundance's godfather. She was Mocha's first child.

* * *

><p><strong>58<strong>

Emilie became Charlotte Sundance's godmother.

* * *

><p><strong>60<strong>

Leo was killed by a monster.

Leo had one of his quotes written on his gravestone. "When I die, make sure that my gravestone is the most hilarious of all the gravestones."

* * *

><p><strong>Notes<strong>

Leo renamed all of the kids that the Argo II crew had.

Cassandra Chase-Jackson was Tadpole because Leo believed until the day he died that she would grow gills.

Aidan Grace was Charming because Leo firmly believed that Cassandra and Aidan would fall in love (also until the day that he died)

Oliver Rosenberg was Talon because when he was young he used to grab onto the clothes of whoever was holding him and he went through a grabbing phase, and he had a tight grip.

Isis was Georgette, because of the georgette skirts that ballet dancers wear.

Eric and Jordan were Skipper and Buddha. Skipper because Eric was in constant motion and jitters as a child, and Buddha because Jordan was a very quiet and thoughtful boy and Leo thought he knew the secrets of the universe.

Emma Zhang was Sushi because when she was little she'd walk around wrapped up in a blanket.

September Zhang was Tiger because the first sign of the family gift being in her blood was when she bore tiger teeth to Hazel during an argument about bed time, at the age of three.

Riley was Chuckles because her last name's initials were "HA"

Stephan was Sherlock because he loved those books and had an amazing memory and mental clock from a young age, and he could always tell when he was being lied to. Also Leo thought that he would look very good in a long coat.

* * *

><p><strong>Questions for Quinn <strong>

**1) May I punch the athlete who was cheating on Quinn with a diver?**

Quinn: You're assuming I didn't.

Annabeth: You must also be assuming that he still has all of his teeth.

Malcolm: Which is cute of you.

**2) Quinn, don't you believe in forgiving?**

Quinn: I do believe in forgiving, but I believe that it's not my job to forgive everyone for everything; I believe that they have to ask for it. I've seen the kids I grew up with many times since the legion. Some are good friends with me now, but some have never acknowledged anything.

**3) What was Quinn and Jedediah's first kiss like?**

Quinn: It was about a month after we started dating, around Christmas time. I brought him back to Québec to meet my father and grandmother. We went skating on a big rink in Ottawa near the city hall- it's a big, nearby city- and I was teaching me how to skate. In his defense, he's from Florida so I can't entirely blame him. Anyways, I did a lap on my own, and he was clutching the boards for dear life. He called me over for help, but instead of taking my arm for support, he kissed me. We, of course, fell, but it didn't matter.

Jedediah: Can I also mention that I get brownie points for proposing on the same rink?

**4) Why did Quinn and Jedediah's first relationship end poorly?**

Jedediah: A whole bunch of reasons.

Quinn: It feels like everything was wrong- from senate drama, to time, to jealousy, to fatigue...

Jedediah: Either way, the problems were all stupid.

**5) Are Quinn and Jedediah the same age?**

Quinn: He's three months older.

**6) Zara and the twins were Juliet and Stephan's, right?**

Jedediah: So we've been told, we've never met them.

**7) Did they talk at home or was it all sign-language because of Stephan?**

Quinn: We had to maintain both because as much as Stephan couldn't hear, Riley could and we had to be considerate. It became easier when Stephan got older; he gave us his go to talk around him, and he learned to read lips.

* * *

><p><strong>Next chapter: The Minor Characters<strong>

**Including**

**Cate and Connor**

**Malcolm and Nyssa**


	119. The Minor Characters

**So this is the before-last chapter featuring all of the minor characters. Yeay, yeay, yeay! I'm glad you all liked Leo's life. **

**Any questions you have for any character -whether he's in the epilogue, in a past chapter, or mentioned today- is accepted today. Also I'd ask the people who were told that a part of the epilogue would be dedicated to them to please IM me.**

**Another thing: Friday is the last chapter's release date. Pinky-promise; just in time for the Solstice and Thalia's birthday.**

**I hope you had gorgeous weeks! Your reviews made mine beautiful.**

**Disclaimer: Me no own PJO**

* * *

><p>The Minor Characters<p>

Dedicated to: Lara D

* * *

><p><strong>Cate Amjad and Connor Stoll<strong>

_Colin was playing with his train track, clicking together the railroad pieces and using his meaty toddler hands to move the train around them, then clicking the pieces into a new order. Cate got to focus on Kateri, who was holding onto the couch for lack of trust in her little legs._

_"Kateri," She said. The little girl turned to look and Cate clapped her hands. Kateri grinned, squinting her eyes and showing her growing teeth, and clapped back. She unwittingly let go of the couch and managed not to fall on her butt like usual._

_ Cate grinned (she'd tried) and Kateri was swooped up from behind by arms wrapped around her waist. She giggled as she was tickled through her pyjamas and promised that she'd get gobbled up by a monster. Colin raised his eyes and let go of his train to join in on the fun. Cate scooped him up and blew raspberries on his cheeks to have him giggling too._

_ So she'd never had the diehard will to be a mother in her heart, but once Cole had come along she had no clue why it had never crossed her mind beforehand. House full of laughter? Never had been in her dreams. Now that it was in her everyday life? She liked it fine._

_ Connor put Kateri back down on her little legs and Cate released Colin._

_"Are you going to try walking for us, Kattie?" Connor asked her. She replied something that wasn't understandable because of the fingers in her mouth._

_"Don't let her do that," Cate chided. She'd get sick. Connor pulled Kateri's fingers out of her mouth and held her hands up above her head. He slowly shuffled forwards, making the one year old walk. She shuffled forwards with her legs limp as noodles and her steps as heavy as if she were a monster._

_ That was when Connor let go of her hands and she stumbled forwards for a few steps, on her own before collapsing into Cate's free arm. _

_"Wow Kattie!" Cate said. "Did you just walk? Did you just walk like a big girl?"_

_ The fingers went back into her mouth, but Kateri looked very pleased with herself. _

_ She looked up at Connor and couldn't decide what was brighter: his eyes or his smile._

_ In all these years she never had. _

What actually happened

Since Cate died before the war with Gaia, she stayed dead permanently. Having died a hero's death, she stayed in Elysium.

It was hard to say whether or not Connor ever got over it. He dated around in adulthood, but nothing was ever serious.

He served in Camp Jupiter for ten years, making him the first Greek demigod to do so and causing rucus and chaos and general Armageddon in the senate, and retiring at the age of 24. He hung out with Jedediah, Josh Ayano, Hazel Levesque and Quinn during his time in the Fort. They were Cate's best friends.

He lived in New York until his death at the age of 29, working at a theater in Broadway operating the lights and special effects and other stunts onstage.

Connor died rather young for the demigods of that time. He was one of the rare demigods who did die during the twenty monster-free years given by the gods.

* * *

><p><strong>Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner<strong>

Katie became a plant biochemist, starting university the year of the War with Gaia.

Upon moving to Washington DC with Travis after graduating from university, she found a job there and worked in the same lab, at the same table for the rest of her life.

Travis was in DC in the first place because of a job he'd gotten with a secret service that shan't be named. He did that for the rest of his life too and died in Budapest –though nobody had any idea whatsoever what in the world he was even _doing _there.

They had three daughters that were two and three years apart: Jasmine Cathleen, Heather Catharine and Laurel Catharina Stoll.

None of them ever went to Camp Half-Blood (Demeter and Hermes' bloods aren't usually very powerful to monsters, and so diluted by a generation it didn't work), and Jasmine and Heather never found out about the world of Olympus. Laurel was a real sleuth and managed to dig up some info, though.

* * *

><p><strong>Dakota Komendat and Gwendolyn Holly<strong>

Once Dakota retired he and Gwen reconnected at New Rome U. A few years later they were married, like everyone had once predicted. Jason made some serious money off of bets.

Gwen taught at New Rome Elementary School, and she was the favourite teacher of more than one student, often staying late after school to help the ADHD and dyslexic, or answer questions about the Titan and Giant wars that surviving legionnaires, now parents, weren't ready to answer yet. And of course there was the fact that one does not simply hate Gwen.

Dakota was a personal bodybuilder in San Francisco (since nobody in New Rome needed it).

They had three children: Sean, Seth and Angel Komendat. Sean was Aidan's usual watch partner in their cohort, and they were Centurions together.

* * *

><p><strong>Drew Takana and Jake Mason<strong>

Peace was made between Drew and most of camp, including Piper. They quickly escalated the ranks in each other's good books and became the favourite sisters.

Jake was the daytime counsellor for Cabin 9 while Leo went to school, though since the daytime was forge-time it didn't really matter.

Jake went to university two years after Gaia's war and got a degree as an electric engineer. He worked in the mechatronics industry- which wasn't fair since he'd built his first automaton at the age of ten.

Drew and Piper were the only girls in Cabin 10 for two years after the Titan war. Luckily their personalities had calmed down, apologies had been made and the two were very close.

After a third year of staying at camp to make sure that the new girls were secure, Drew launched herself directly into the world of design and secured a job with a bridal company. Quickly becoming more than an intern and eventually more than a designer, _Takana_ became a brand of wedding dresses that you didn't simply "get".

She designed Piper's wedding dress, and it was sewn by Aphrodite campers. It was a white dress with silver piping that dipped down the back and a modest train- that Piper hadn't thought she'd appreciate until she tried it on. According to Kimmy-Lee McLean, Piper was an ice princess.

Once hurt, Jake called out an alarm to all demigods in the New York area and Drew was the first to find him, and the one to nurse him back to health- practically living in his apartment and working from there to make sure he had the semi-constant attention he needed.

_Drew put her book down when she heard the struggling breath of someone in the room whose door was half-opened. She pushed inside and turned on a small lamp. Jake was wearing a grey shirt and pyjama pants, lying on his bed with his right shoulder and arm covered in bandages. His legs were limp as noodles and at crooked angles until Chiron's potion wore off and he could feel them again. The bandages on the back of his neck were fine._

_"Jake?" Drew asked sitting on the bed next to him, smoothing down her skirt. _

_"I'm okay," he managed to say._

_"No you're not," Drew said. "Honey, you're going to have to tell me because I'm the only one who can help."_

_"It…" Jake winced. "It hurts." He said. _

_Drew reached for his side table and picked up the small container of white pills. With her other hand she helped Jake sit up, putting another hand on his back. She helped him eat the pills, take a pump of inhalable nectar (thank you Malcolm) and held a glass of water to his lips._

_"It's important that you just put down your pride and tell me," Drew reminded him. In the faint light, Jake blushed and Drew spared him from answering and helped him lie down. He looked at her, as if he'd say something more, so Drew didn't move, she just pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. _

_Jake shrugged himself into a sitting-up position once again._

_"What are you doing?" Drew asked._

_"Something else that's important," Jake said putting his good arm around her and kissing her._

That was how they started going out. They got married shortly after.

They had two little girls (Evelin Pippa, Claire Nyssa-Rose) and a little boy who died in infancy, Nathaniel Leonard.

* * *

><p><strong>Malcolm and Nyssa<strong>

Malcolm refused to lead Cabin 6 in any circumstance after the war. It was a form of PTSD according to Chiron, and guilt for having designed the plan in which a girl –Connor's girl- died.

He went to university and got a degree in English literature. His career was all over the place (in a good way), but eventually he settled down with a PhD and a job teaching at a university.

Nyssa graduated as an aircraft maintenance mechanic, having loved what she did with the Argo II so much and wanting to be working with machinery instead of sitting at a desk and conceptualising.

She worked in Atalanta, at one of the country's busiest airport.

She also once happened to be onboard a plane when the flight attendant asked "Can anybody fly a plane?" onboard a flight that had been high jacked by terrorists, planning to repeat a 9/11 type incident. She landed a plane that had no engines though she wasn't a commercially licensed pilot. She was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by the president at that time.

They had two kids, Tyler and Elizabeth, and got married when the oldest was three.

Tyler was very close to Cassandra and Riley-Anne, and they would often huddle together at family meetings and talk about things that had treacherous number/letter combinations as names.

* * *

><p><strong>Tyson and Ella<strong>

To answer the question right away: it wasn't conventional for monsters to date or get married, so they never did.

Tyson worked at the forges of Poseidon and spent his summers at Camp Half-Blood.

Ella worked with Camp Jupiter's augur and flew around, and spent her summers at Camp Half-Blood.

Tyson was killed by a spooked half-blood making his run to Camp Jupiter long after the stories of the War with Gaia and its heroes became foggy myths.

Ella was never killed, but passed away of old age eventually. She never re-emerged from Tartarus without remembering the sibylline books, which did get her in trouble.

Since they were monsters, they regenerated as themselves every time after years and years.

Eventually Tyson's memory became too foggy and he didn't remember Percy.

His essence was too scattered after an extended period of time and Tyson changed personality and character.

Ella remained Ella and became a monster as recognizable as Echidna, but kinder and harmless.

* * *

><p><strong>Thalia Grace and Hylla Bell<strong>

Thalia lived a quarter as long as Zoë Nightshade had, and died in an incident involving a campground unprotected by Artemis. By this point in her life, Thalia's memory of her old friends and family was starting to wear thin, and the panic that came with that was enough to have killed her on its own. She couldn't remember the smell of Annabeth's hair, Grover's favourite song or Percy's favourite colour or who Luke was.

But Thalia protected her brother's child, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren for as long as she could keep track of the line. Never once did she deny or deign to use her last name again; not after the Titan War.

Hylla was Queen of the Amazons until her death in combat, five years before Reyna passed away. Amazons, after all, are mortal women.

The Amazons retained an excellent relationship with Camp Jupiter for centuries after her death, and Camp Jupiter thrived with the help of the Amazons when it came to weaponry, school supplies and certain precious metals. The Amazons benefited from the promise of military enforcement if their headquarters were threatened, on behalf of the Fort.

The Amazons allowed Hazel to keep Arion in her custody though she had, in all technically, stolen it. (It probably wouldn't have ended up that way if Hylla weren't Queen).

Both of them were prepped for unconditional aunt love long and hard once Jason and Reyna found out that their child was going to be a boy. They came through wonderfully and Aidan was very close to both of them –which raised some eyebrows all around the world. Jason and Reyna both sustained that under the toughness if you looked at their characters; it was natural.

* * *

><p><strong>Clarisse La Rue and Chris Rodriguez<strong>

They didn't get married for the simple and good reason that Clarisse died a hero's death during a battle during the war with Gaia. She saved a few Roman legionnaires and a full Greek phalanx from a monster after abandoning her lines and rushing into a wicked stunt that took attention off. Her injuries were so severe that when she came back to life, she only survived for two days. During those two days, she met Reyna and Frank.

It was the closest Clarisse had ever been to something like a sister, and Frank was definitely her favourite brother.

It took a long time for Chris to get over it, and when he did he only dated for a year before dying too.

Chris was a commercial pilot in his life, and his plane ran out of fuel over the Pacific because of conversion issues between litres and gallons.

**Britt and Brady: the Centurions of the Third Cohort**

The pair of siblings retired from the legion four years after the war with Gaia and settled into New Rome.

Brittney worked odd jobs in San Francisco for the most part, and Brady became a well appreciated radio host in New Rome.

They lived together with a few other Centurions in a common flat before going off to start their family lives.

* * *

><p><strong>Nico di Angelo<strong>

Nico eventually settled down after five more years of wandering around and appearing and disappearing and fire-escape pop-up visits.

Basically he was tied down by the ankles by Hazel and his cousins.

He became a forensic pathologist in Seattle Washington, somewhat cheating through schooling, which allowed him to work with the living and the dead. It was a stretch, but his cousins figured that that was as close as they'd get. "Besides," he argued, "If Hazel gets to work with gems I get to work with dead people."

He never actually married his "wife" Jade, but everybody always went with the ideology that they were until she died of kidney failure prematurely, at the age of 30.

_Tears were streaking down his face. Hazel was trying to calm him down and she'd just gotten him to raise his head up from his folded arms as they sat at the kitchen table. He raised a hand_ _and it shook._

_"You-you know how auras are- are g-gold?" He asked shaking like a leaf._

_"Yes," Hazel said trying to find a logic here._

_"I-I woke up and-and tu-turned around and looked at Jade and her-her aura was not gold." Nico said choking out every word as if it was a knife tearing his throat apart. _

_"Oh, Nico," Hazel said gathering him in her arms._

Afterwards nobody bugged Nico much to be social and present, though Hazel made sure he held onto his job, showed up for family reunions, and never sunk too deep.

He was Emma and September's legal custodian if anything happened to Frank and Hazel, so that helped him focus on something and be present a lot.

* * *

><p><strong>Rachel Elizabeth Dare<strong>

Every time Rachel spoke the words "Daddy, can I" as a child, she got handed a fifty dollar bill. Unknowingly he paid for art school, which made him furious. Rachel studied in New York, where she could easily rush to Camp Half-Blood and deliver a prophecy or prevent Annabeth from murdering Percy or babysit.

Rachel was the one who supplied Cass with her kitten, Dora (like Pandora) when she was seven. This was done without Percy and Annabeth's approval. Since nobody had the heart to tell Cass otherwise, she was allowed to keep the cat. Score one for Aunt Rachel, as per usual.

She served as the oracle of Delphi until she was thirty years old; the maximum age. Afterwards she focused even more on art than she ever had and she backpacked the world. She was quite a famous painter, though a lot of her work was anonymous.

Once she did gain popularity she used her influence to reach out about the environment, mental health, social stigma, gay rights, and anything else you can think of as far as social justice went.

She never got married and never had children of her own. She adopted a son, Cole Dare, from Kenya.

* * *

><p><strong>Emily Zhang and Esperanza Valdez<strong>

They continued to live in Elysium together, even after their sons achieved the land.

Emily Zhang found Emma once she died and kept her safe until she was up on her feet.

They waited for Frank and Leo to achieve Elysium before both being reborn. Emily stayed back longer because she liked duelling and hanging out with ancient heroes.

* * *

><p><strong>Chiron and Lupa<strong>

Chiron and Lupa continued to train heroes. Of course.

Chiron was very excited to see his pupils grow up, go to university, start careers, families and train legacies. It was all new to him.

Lupa started appreciating more of that after realising the old horse's excitement. She was Aidan Grace's godmother, which didn't stop her from nearly killing him in training when he tried to use his parents' names as leverage (he never did it again).

The two old trainers were reunited after years of forced separation.

* * *

><p><strong>Dani Milano, Lars and Karin, Aleksander, Marie-Pier, Schmuel and the European demigods<strong>

Tommy was considered their leader until he died. They often used the bracelets given to the Argo II's crew to go back home, wherever in Europe that may be, for family purposes, or to scout out new demigods.

Greeks wore orange, Romans wore purple, and European demigods often wore blue accessories. Dani always wore a light blue scarf, for example, and most of the string bracelets Tommy always wore on his wrist became blue.

The habit of keeping their passports with them at all times was kept, though it wasn't necessary anymore.

It took a while but soon enough they were incorporated into the camps' routines perfectly.

Because of the strained political atmosphere between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood immediately after the war was over, demigods were –for the moment- obliged to go to the camp of their heritage. The only exception was Connor Stoll, which was a hard-fought battle. By hitting under the belt and pointing out that Connor wouldn't be at Camp in the first place if Rome hadn't screwed up; Jason managed to get him passage.

Dani managed the European demigods who were Greek, so a little under half of them, at Camp Half-Blood. She was claimed as a daughter of Hermes very quickly after the war, which surprised nobody and made her sass the god directly instead of just sassing "whichever one of you spawned me".

Dani became an ESL teacher and traveled the world. She married a woman named Eliza McDonnell in her late life. Eliza passed away in a car crash three years later, and Dani remained a lone wolf after that. She was Oliver Rosenberg's godmother, and took care of the kids after Tommy and Piper died.

Lars and Karin (children of Venus) and Schmuel (son of Juventas- Roman goddess of youth) both grew up in Camp Jupiter in Tommy's cohort once the dust settled, and eventually joined said cohort as legionnaires.

_"This isn't the first time children were raised in the fort, so I don't exactly understand what the problem is." Jason told the senate._

_"You're talking about you!" Hank called out._

_"Amongst other, yes. Thank you for pointing out an example that the senate can relate to." Jason said. "I was thinking of the Wright brothers, Aurelia McQuid, Jack London…"_

_The senate shuffled._

_"I'd also like to take this occasion to remind the senate that our mantra is to take in worthy Roman demigods or legacies, not worthy Americans. Already these three children have escaped death and managed to keep up on a cross-country trek. Frankly, I think that that if nothing else entitles them to stay here without their birthright being questioned." _

_The senate was quiet and Jason snuck a look to Tommy, who had two of the kids balanced on his knees. He shot Jason a thankful look._

They made their lives in New Rome after retiring from the legion.

Marie-Pier was a French daughter of Athena, and she lived in Camp Half-Blood before moving to England to study at Oxford. Having loved an annoying, stupid, childish, immature and _perfect_ son of Hermes at the European Camp who passed away the night of the land's siege, Symon son of Mercury, she never had a proper family of her own.

She became a significant psychologist, with a PhD in both the English Language and psychology. Her papers on human nature, the survival drive and PTSD were significant and she won three Joseph Zubin Awards (which was big for psychologists) and an E.L. Thorndike Award (also big for psychologists).

Aleksander, a Czech son of Ceres and one of Tommy's best friends, was in the third cohort at Camp Jupiter. He was Oliver's godfather, and he worked as a veterinarian technician in West, Texas. He was deported during the Green Scandal, and he and Tommy shared a flat in Berlin for the duration of their stay away from the camps.

Estefanìa was one of the demigods who returned to Europe. She was a daughter of a muse, and made it big in Spain. She passed away before the band she was in went on their first world tour.

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><p><strong>Questions for Leo <strong>

1) Did you ever see Aunt Rosa after the war with Gaia?

**Leo: I tried. She wasn't in the mood to see the spawn of the devil though, so it ended poorly. In other news; Mom haunted the hell out of Rosa until she died. **

2) Why didn't you and Em get married if your relationship was so strong?

**Emilie: Marriage is a piece of paper, and it's a piece of paper that got me into lots of trouble and kept me tied down when I needed to get out once. I trust Leo with my life and I truly, truly love him to death –technically enough to get married- but I don't believe in marriage and its importance anymore.**

**Leo: Preach.**

3) Did Emilie know that Leo was a demigod? What about the foster kids?

**Emilie: I knew before we moved in together, he isn't big on lying. I actually got to visit Camp as a teenager, but my memory was whipped when we broke up. I got it back, though- and visited again.**

**Percy: Because, you know, _Em Guerette. _**

**Leo: We never told any of the foster kids; they didn't need to know that, and one or two of them were demigod themselves. **

4) What's written on your gravestone?

**Leo: "When I die make sure that something freaking hilarious is written on my gravestone"**

5) Who was your favourite foster kid? Favourite memory with them?

**Leo: I don't have a favourite- I hate favouritism. Every single one I've met is a really cool person who just got handed a bad slice of life. I've known Mocha since she's seven, so I know her probably the best, and I walked her down the aisle at her wedding if that's what you mean. Working with Holden –who was a really severe case of schizophrenia, about 95% of his waking hours were spent hallucinating- changed my perspective on basically everything in a really special way. There was one kid, Carlos from Guatemala, and I taught him English. Casper, Richard and Yarah were all really interested in building when they were around, so that was cool. I think that that's where they work in now, actually. **

**I think that a really special time was when it was my year hosting the Argo-II-yeay-we're-not-on-it annual BBQ with the crew. A lot of the kids were nervous about everyone coming over. But everyone and everyone's Munchkins were so kind and embracive to them, they didn't treat them any differently, it was like they were part of the usual gang, and they were all Facebook friends and whatnot by the end of the day. That was a feel-good moment.**

6) If you and Em DID get married would you perform the ceremony? What made you want to get a certificate like that?

**Leo: Technically it's a licence, and I got it because I had to encourage the other guys to man up and put a ring on it(s? does that need an s?). And no; I wouldn't.**

**Jason: You'd try.**

**Emilie: I would break everything off if he even thought about it.**

7) Who were Rat and Pelican?

**Leo: Holden had some regular hallucinations that came by all the time. They were like people who strolled in and out of his world. Rat was a rat and Pelican was a pelican- he's had them since childhood. Rat made and told Holden to do bad things, and Pelican was between good and bad depending on the day. One of Holden's things was a lot of pain on his arms because Pelican was pecking his arms with his beak. **

8) What gave you the idea to host foster kids?

**Leo: Well, I was pretty sure that I could do it better than some of the parents I'd gotten as a kid.**

9) Which Camp did he chose to be around most?

**Leo: Camp Half-Blood. It's more familiar, more homey, closer, and has a better forge.**

10) How did Emilie die?

**Emilie: Heart attack at a young age.**

11) What happened to Buford and the Argo II?

**Jason: Don't talk to me about the Argo II.**

**Reyna: Don't.**

**Leo: See; there was a custody battle over who would get to keep the Argo II. The senate (full of bitter and difficult old dudes) was like 'mrr mrr mrr our troops contributed more to the war!' and Cabin Nine was like 'we built the damn thing' and the senate was like 'it's a spoil of war and more legionnaires died in the war!' and Camp was like 'YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN DO WATER WHAT THE HECK?' **

**Annabeth: The Argo II is docked at Camp Half-blood now. We use it for field trips to California and battle reenactment.**

**Percy: And parties. **

**Leo: And a hiding spot.**

**Piper: And homework.**

**Quinn: And the cohorts sleep there when we visit.**

**Reyna: And training drills.**

**Percy: If you ask politely, that is. It's _our _property.**

**Reyna: Shut the Hades up, Jackson. **

**Leo: Buford was a forge helper to all the children of Hephaestus until he got mouldy and we had to put him down. **

**12) **What happened to Emilie after Leo died?

**Emilie: Well, it sucked big time. I stopped taking in as many foster kids, traveled a lot more to take my mind off things. I got a dog. I didn't really "get over it" because when someone's done as much for you as Leo did for me you just don't. But I was happy. **

13) What exactly did Emilie's husband do to her while they were married?

**Emilie: Slapping was popular. **

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><p><strong>Next: Josie Esposito<strong>


	120. Minor Characters II

**Alrighty guys, I know I'm posting late, but I think part of my is trying to stall.**

**Before letting yourself read the last chapter, here are the questions that were asked for the minor characters. If you're not in the mood to read them all, at least skip to the last. It's not my loss if you skip, but you'll want it. **

**Dedicating: Me no own the characters here.**

* * *

><p><strong>Questions<strong>

**1) **How did Nico die

**Nico: I got in a fight with a minor underworld godling. We were disagreeing about what territory I was on. I guess I was on his: he won.**

**2) **How'd Connor die from working lights and props?

**Connor: Let's just say that when it's dark and when the stage has prop buildings all over it, it's easy for someone or something (like a hellhound) to sneak in via shadow travel and snoop around. Also you can't hear tiny sounds, like paws on the floor, with headsets on and people backstage calling you through it. **

**3) **Who died first: Connor or Travis?

**Travis: Connor**

**4) **Cate and Connor: Did you ever see each other in Elysium?

**Answer is pending. **

**5) **When did Katie finally agree to go out with Travis?

**Katie: The summer after the war with Gaia he started helping out in the strawberry fields a lot. I was suspicious at first, but he was being harmless so I let him come back every morning. Eventually I got around to asking him why he was volunteering. He said that he was tired of things not being able to grow up, or growing up too quickly, or dying. He felt Connor's loss really heavily, and Connor _did _change a lot after the shock. **

**Travis: Let's just say we killed a few bushes making out.**

**6) **Did Travis still keep pulling stupid pranks?

**Travis: So you're asking me whether I lived or not?**

**7) **How come Katie and Travis never told their kids about Olympus?

**Katie: It wasn't something we wanted to explain, or something that they had to know. We didn't want to boost their scent for no reason, and none of them saw through the mist. But we had a close call when Heather asked why Uncle Connor didn't date. **

**Travis: That we did...**

**Katie: We just said "sometimes you've already gotten the best that you can out of the world."**

**8) **Is there a reason all your daughters' middle names have 'Cate' in it?

**Travis: That would be Cate Amjad.**

**9) **When did Dakota stop being addicted to red Kool-Aid?

**Jason: When he realised that it was the same colour as blood.**

**10) **What was Gwen's favourite part of being a teacher?

**Gwen: I think it's being able to spread ideas and get ideas and spring ideas. Because New Rome has a really small education system, I've taught pre-schoolers and middle school kids and seniors and second graders- I could talk about the nature of man, the legion's history, and why sharing was important. Also it's amazing to watch them grow, and I just love working with kids and taking care of people. **

**11) **What was Drew's favourite wedding dress to design?

**Drew: It wasn't designed for anybody; it was a middle-of-the-night-must-jot-down idea. The dress had three skirts and they each pinned up at different places to show some beadwork. The bodice had some similar beadwork on it. It was strapless with a sweetheart neckline. I would've worn it if I hadn't already gotten married. But Piper's dress was a _lot _of fun, and so was Meadow's. (The first daughter of Aphrodite to come to camp after the war).**

**12) **Who were some of Drew's clients?

**Drew: The first homosexual president got married two years after her term ended, so it was cool to design those two dresses, and touching that I was the one to do it. One was black and one was white- it was a gag about tuxedos. The white one was a mermaid dress and the skirt was gauze, so was the lining at the top and the straps. There were rhinestones along the top. The black one had black gauze halterneck, Austrian crystal along the top, and a sash at the waist. I did a lot of dresses for stars once I got more famous. **

**13) **What was Jake and Drew's wedding like?

**Jake: It was quieter than I expected considering I was marrying a daughter of Aphrodite. I mean-umm- it was perfect. **

**Drew: Mmm-hmm… **

**Jake: We were at this butterfly sanctuary because we had this thing with butterflies- long story. Drew was gorgeous. We had a really tight group of people around. It was the first day her father actually accepted and said something good about me. **

**Leo: I didn't get to marry them.**

**Drew: No you didn't, honey. There's no way in hell I would have let you. **

**14) **How did Nyssa land that plane?

**Nyssa: It's a technique that's really tricky and usually only works for the Argo II. It's definitely not plane-friendly. But hell; I had to try something.**

**15) **What was she and Malcolm's wedding like?

**Leo: I GOT TO MARRY THEM!**

**Malcolm: Yes you did now shut up because she'll hit you again.**

**Nyssa: Steampunk, but dressed more normal. **

**Malcolm: At a museum's gallery. **

**Leo: Ya'all are so romantic.**

**Nyssa: Fine Dr. Romance. We had Elizabeth and Tyler dressed up in bronze. Lizzie had a little steampunk butterfly in her hair, like most of the wedding party on the girl's side. It was amazing, and I'm glad we finally went through with it because it was the best day of my life (post the two kids). You good with that, Leo? **

**16) **Tyson and Ella: Wait, so there wasn't an egg?

**Percy: I'm just going to let you think about how physically impossible that is.**

**17) **How would he [Tyson] be now? Is he meaner or nicer, smarter or what?

**Percy: Well, he couldn't be nicer. We're not sure what happened exactly.**

**18) **Did Clarisse and Chris see each other in Elysium?

**Chris: Yup. She was living the fighting-everything Emily-Zhang-like lifestyle. We weren't in the same districts and I went and got myself reborn quickly. Children of Hermes aren't good in Elysium or Asphodel or the Isles.**

**19) **What did Clarisse like the most about Frank?

**Frank: She said something about deep-down sass. She liked hearing about the family gift a lot, and she'd never met another child of war who'd read The Art of War. I think she also liked hearing about Mars a lot, rather than Ares. **

**20) **Thalia and Hylla: Was it hard to have a boy as a nephew?

**Thalia: It made it a lot harder to justify and get time off, that's for sure.**

**Hylla: I got crooked looks until he was about five from the Amazon Kingdom. It was pretty taboo. But don't get me wrong; I love Aidan shamelessly and completely. **

**Thalia: Same here, definitely. The only time where anyone could think otherwise (hopefully) was the shocker of finding out that we weren't getting a niece.**

**21) **How long did Thalia live?

**Artemis: 800 years.**

**22) **Nico: Who was Jade?

**Nico: Jade liked Indie music. She had wild crinkled brown hair and chocolate eyes, with a splash of freckles. She wore bootleg jeans and ratty t-shirts and converses and haters were going to hate. She was very unapologetic about who she was. **She had a magnetic energy so people just _wanted _to be with her.**She was a very positive woman, but she could get snarky. Cheerful, pleasant, she made people feel good and see goodness both in themselves and in everything around them. I think that that's why people were really surprised when I started introducing Jade to them.**

**23) **Rachel: Who was Cole?

**Rachel: Cole was the tiniest child, but he grew shoulders and muscles and height when he turned twelve and just kept getting taller than me. He was a football player and he had a damn good time on the field. He had a lot of leadership, he was very social, lots of friends, he was appreciative and observant… he had a good heart. He ended up double-majoring in religious studies and English.**

**24) **What was Rachel's most famous art piece?

**Rachel: "Weavers", which is three intertwined portraits of weavers in Greek mythology. I've got Arachne, Penelope and Athena in it. Another is "The Box" which is about Pandora's office.**

**25) **Emily and Esperanza: who were you reborn as?

**Esperanza: It's impossible to tell. But knowing Emily, she's probably some kind of lactose intolerant lesbian bar mitzvah planner.**

**Frank: That's her kind of title, all right.**

**26) **Did Emma live with Emily?

**Emily: Nope. I just kept an eye on her. **

**27) **Chiron and Lupa: Did you visit the new families?

**Lupa: No.**

**Chiron: Yes.**

**28) **How much did Lupa change?

**Lupa: Not much.**

**Chiron: She ate a demigod last week. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.**

**Lupa: You are not excused for that pun. **

**29) **Did Percy have something to do with the colour blue [being the European demigod's symbol] or was that a coincidence?

**Tommy: The youngest demigod who died on the night of our land's siege was Eleni, our little sweetheart from Russia. She was three years old, and her favourite colour was blue.**

**30) **Did Marie-Pier ever see Symon in Elysium?

**Marie-Pier: Nope, I was shipped to the Isles of the Blest. Turns out I've been, like, amazing in past lives.**

**31) **Did Dani become friends with the Stoll brothers?

**Percy: Yes.**

**Tommy: It was horrible.**

**Jason: Seriously.**

**32) **Can I have a Connor and Cate reunion in Elysium?

**Writer of story: Well, okay. **

* * *

><p>Without even opening his eyes Connor knew that he had one <em>hell <em>of a headache and that he must have done something pretty remarkable to achieve it.

"You're conscious bud, don't you just lie there. You've been doing that for four days, I'm getting impatient." He heard.

Connor couldn't place anything- not the voice, not the sass, not the tone, barely the gender...

"Open your eyes, you bag of bones. Well, technically you've got no bones now and that's the point of it all..."

"Who the hell is talking?" Connor asked. It came out like a groan.

"Guess," whoever was talking said. "Who here would find you on the street, be very relieved after having missed you for the longest time, drag you home, and take care of you until you woke up? Who's already found and taken care of you? Who's always been happy to see you? Who must have missed you?"

"Holly Styx!" Connor said, eyes shooting open. He suddenly got the whole world crystal clearly. He was lying in a bed with soft sheets, everything smelled like vanilla, there was the hum of a fan, his whole body was drenched with sweat and tired, there was a ceiling light open, his mouth tasted like blood and ambrosia, and someone was sitting at the foot of his bed. "Am I wearing pants? Am I wearing a shirt?"

Her crazy black curls were falling down her back. Her dark eyes had that glitter to them. Playful and totally her. Like 'I'm going to do something mischievous but I'm going to do it so well that you're going to like it and love me'. The light played on her bronzed skin. She was wearing a tunic and tights and smiling her sneaky and playful and to-die-for smile at her.

"You're just missing the shirt. But don't worry. That's _fine." _ Cate said with a smile on her lips. "You've been working out?"

"Legion does that to ya." Connor said sitting up. She looked older. He looked younger. Could it be?

"So is the legion where you met 'Katie' and 'Heater' and 'Jasmine'?" Cate asked with a raised eyebrow. "You sleep talk bud, and I'm not quite sure who this Laurel person is and how concerned I should be of her existence."

"Don't get too creative. They're my brother's wife and kids." Connor said.

"Oh," Cate said pushing her hair behind her ear. "Well that's alright, isn't it?"

"Everything's al-"

Cate lunged and wrapped her arms around his neck. He fell back on his pillows and gathered his wits enough to hold her. He managed to push her back a bit- but only enough to find his lips and get crackin.

He liked being alive. He honestly did. His life was cool, his job was cool, his family was cool and his friends were cool- nothing to give up voluntarily. But maybe this dead thing wasn't going to be that hard.


	121. Josie Esposito

**So I seriously don't know how to finish it. I guess that "thank you" is appropriate. You guys endured typos, cliffhangers, my mass-murdering your characters, my out-there and sometimes unrealistic plot twists, my long draws of plot zilch... I'd also like to thank you because I think that my writing has gotten a lot better over the course of this, and that in the next multi-chapter story I write those things won't happen as much. **

**(Speaking of my next story, it won't be a House of Hades fanfic like a lot of you asked; it'll be something called The Immortal Monsters of Emily Zhang if anything). **

**So as much as you guys continually thank me for writing, I need to continually thank you for reviewing, giving me constructive criticism, back-up, ideas, and even friendship. Your reviews are really the only way that I get to know how my writing is, because writing stories isn't something that I can get a grade on or that everyone will automatically register and have ideas like a drawing. It's very hard to get feedback on creative writing (I find), which is a shame because it's what I'm good at and it's where I shine even if I'm a bit tarnished. And so you made me feel like a million drachmas.**

**I'll miss this story- I mean, some characters like Quinn and Cassandra and Josie and Aidan are left behind for good now. And I'll miss your reviews and your help and my Friday routine. But everything has to end and this has definitely reached its time. So one last time: happy solstice, happy apocalypse, happy solstice, happy birthday Thalia, and enjoy this last chapter and this last plot twist.**

**Dedication of the story: All of you; annon or member, Fanpop or Fanfiction, occasional or regular, long or short... thank you. **

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

* * *

><p><strong>Josie Esposito<strong>

**Dedicated to: I am that Writer/EditorGirl **

* * *

><p>So she was dead.<p>

Not much happened after Elysium was achieved.

She was given Greek burial rites at Camp Half-Blood since it was determined that she was Greek. Quinn and Hazel lit the funeral shroud.

Her mother, Carmen Esposito Mendoza, was found by the whole crew a month after the Argo II landed.

It wasn't pretty.

First: she tried to stop them from coming in. They were persistent, and eventually she accepted to be listened to. Secondly: Leo translated Jason's explanation of what demigods were (upon which they were nearly kicked out again) and how Josie wasn't much of a freak after all. Thirdly: they explained to her how Josie had survived on the streets, been found, and had fought and died in Greece, and gave up her privilege to come back to life for Annabeth. Upon which they weren't kicked out.

Carmen, as Josie had maintained, seriously did not feel a trace of emotion for Josie. She didn't even pretend or enquire where the body was.

Hazel slapped her, and that was their cue to go.

Hugo on the other hand was found two weeks after the war by Jason, when he could spare a few hours away from New Rome where Reyna and his people desperately needed him.

Hugo was treated for a pneumonia, dehydration and undernourishment in New Rome.

Apollo blessed him with the power of sight, and he replaced Octavian as the legion augur. He was somewhat of an apprentice to Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and Ella was somewhat his assistant.

He was in Connor Stoll's circle of friends once he got out of his shell.

It took a while for Hugo to adapt to being in New Rome. Not only the gods and the legion, but also to the fact that he was safe, had a bed waiting for him unconditionally, three meals a day in his stomach, and no need to pickpocket. The European demigods helped since most of them spoke Spanish. Tommy and Reyna spoke Spanish, as well as a handful of legionnaires, but Hugo caught on to English quickly enough, and Latin was a breeze.

Another thing that took some adapting was learning of his best friend's death.

Much about Josie, Hugo hadn't been aware of. Her sight, her powers, her ichor count… It was hard on him since he had believed he knew her so well. Especially since most educated guesses said that Josie was fully aware of everything going on around her, around camp, and on Olympus for most of her life. She had pretended not to and kept the heaviest secret on earth as to keep the future safe. The future is, after all, what fuels all of us.

The general consensus aboard the Argo II's crew is that all along, Josie knew exactly how the Argo II's journey would finish, who would die, who would prosper, who would have kids, who would work what…

And they were right.

I hope you liked the story. Just remember: no spoilers.

Love,

Josie Esposito

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><p>1212/012 9:42

21/12/012 7:32

Forever scripting,

HecateA


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